Welcome

Hello and welcome to my moth Blog. I now reside in a small village in East Cambridgeshire called Fordham. My Blog's aim is to promote and encourage others to participate in the wonderful hobby that is Moth-trapping.
Moth records are vital for building a picture of our ecosystem around us, as they really are the bottom of the food chain. They are an excellent early indicator of how healthy a habitat is. I openly encourage people to share their findings via social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter & Instagram.
So why do we do it? well for some people it is to get an insight into the world of Moths, for others it is to build a list of species much like 'Twitching' in the Bird world. The reason I do it....you just never know what you might find when you open up that trap! I hope to show what different species inhabit Cambridgeshire and neighbouring counties.
On this Blog you will find up-to-date records and pictures.
I run a trap regularly in my garden and also enjoy doing field trips to various localities over several different counties.
Please also check out the links in the sidebar to the right for other people's Blogs and informative Websites.
Thanks for looking and happy Mothing!

KEY

NFY = New Species For The Year
NFG = New Species For The Garden
NEW! = New Species For My Records

Any Species highlighted in RED signifies a totally new species for my records.

If you have any questions or enquiries then please feel free to email me
Contact Email : bensale@rocketmail.com

My Latest Notables and Rarities

Tuesday 18 August 2015

Back from Turkey

Hello all.
I have just got back from Turkey last night after a fabulous two weeks away of not doing much at all really! A day trip to Rhodes was great as well as going to an Aqua park for our 1 year wedding anniversary.
Turkey is certainly a beautiful Country and the people are very friendly too.
We stayed in the Green Forest Hotel just outside Hisaronu and I would thoroughly recommend it.
I did have a few wanders about looking for wildlife in the day, but it was just too hot for much to be honest, a fair few Swallow-tails, Geranium Bronzes and Great-banded Grayling's was all I could find.
What I was more interested in was the moths, of course! and there were a reasonable amount of species that I had never seen before.
As most of you are probably aware, it is illegal to moth-trap in Turkey so I had to be very careful indeed. Most nights I just run my 11w Fluorescent tube on the balcony until we got back to the room and went to bed, then the light was switched off (max running time of about 3hrs) and the balcony light was then left on until the morning.
On two nights though I ventured into the woods and used my light with a small net and a few pots.

Here is a full list of the moths that I saw whilst I was there, pictures below are just a small sample of the species I photographed, their will be more on my Flickr @ Bennyboymothman

There are still plenty of moths to confirm with identifications though so this list isn't exhaustive!

Macro Moths

4x Catacola conversa
2x Eublemma Parva
1x Small Mottled Willow
1x Dark Mottled Willow

1x Double-striped Pug
2x Vestal
10+ Tree-lichen Beauty
1x Problepsis ocellata
2x Passenger

4x Bordered Straw
3x Blair's Mocha
1x Double-striped Pug
1x Knot Grass

1x Cryphia ochsi
1x Menophra japygiaria
1x Pearly Underwing
1x Willow Beauty
3x Striped Hawk-moth
1x Scarce Bordered Straw

1x Jersey Tiger
1x Humming-bird Hawk-moth

1x Cilix asiatica



Micro Moths

30+ Nomophila noctuella
1x Udea ferrugalis
5+ Nola chlamitualis
1x Etiella zinckenella
1x Pyroderces argyrogrammos
10+ Euchromus bella
1x Pyrausta despicta
1x Nyctegretis sp
1x Palpita vitrealis

1x Dolicharthria punctalis
3x Phalonidia contractana
1x Endothenia oblongana
1x Lobesia reliquana
2x Metasia rosealis
1x Catoptria corsicella?
2x Hellula undalis

1x Cydia splendana
2x Endotricha flammealis
2x Antigastra catalaunalis
 
Antigastra catalaunalis













Blair's Mocha










Cilix asiatica











Cryphia ochsi












Dolicharthria punctalis












Etiella zinckenella










Eublemma parva's







Hellula undalis











Menophra japygiaria












The Passenger











Phalonidia contractana











Problepsis ocellata











Pyroderces argyrogrammos










Striped Hawk-moth


 

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