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

Wednesday 21 May 2014

Bovingdon and Gadesprings - Field Trip - 19/05/14

Roger, Steve and I made a trip to Bovingdon for some late Spring and early Summer species and boy were we in for a treat!
We first trapped this site last year on the 11th of June (Trip report HERE)
This time though we were simply overwhelmed with species coming in faster than one could jot down.
Interestingly we caught most species that we caught last year but as a comparison, we are about 6 weeks ahead of last year (because of the cold Winter of 2012/13)
Of course last year was abnormal so we could not go on last years records too much, some of the species that we did get were typically 2 weeks earlier than the books state.

The evening was perfect, with a mild muggy feel about it and still 20 degrees at 8pm, the cloud was still with us and the moon stayed at bay (at least until we packed up)
The threat of rain seemed to have subsided and the breeze had dropped so we were very lucky indeed.
We did not get our target species Light Feathered Rustic, but it needn't have mattered as it was a long shot anyway and there was plenty of interest coming to all four traps as we worked them throughout the night.

Highlights included an Alder Moth, Buttoned Snout, Seraphim, Clay Triple-lines, Grass Rivulet and Coronet.
The smaller moths were also in abundance, particularly around the twin Actinic trap and several were taken away to examine in natural light.
Highlights of the micros included Bucculatrix nigricomella, Mompha sp, Mompha raschkiella, Strophedra weirana and Platyptilia gonodactyla, 3 of those new to me.

EDIT: Mompha not retained, so could be propinquella or lacteella!

We also managed to get an unusual looking Treble Lines of the form obscura.

It really was so nice to see good numbers of the common species as well with 30+ Clouded Silver, 40+ of Red Twin-spot Carpet and Mottled/Common Pug both numbering easily in excess of 25 specimens each.

Exhausted as we had finished around 1am at this site, then onto Gadesprings to empty the two traps there, where we found another 3 Alder Moths, Figure of Eighty and Light Brocade amongst a reasonable amount of species.

Home at 3am, up at 6am and I felt like I had a hangover this morning, all good fun!

Numbers below are as close as I could record!
 
Catch Report - 19/05/14 - Bovingdon Brickworks - Hemel Hempstead - 2x 125w MV Robinson Trap, 1x 160w MBT Robinson Trap & 1x 80w Actinic Suitcase Trap.

69 Macros and 34 Macros (103 species)

Macro Moths

3x Common Swift
4x Green Silver-lines
1x Brown Rustic
3x Common Marbled Carpet
5x Green Carpet
15+ Silver-ground Carpet
8x Oak Hook-tip
15+ Brimstone Moth
5x Small Phoenix 
1x Small Fan-foot
15+ Flame Shoulder
25+ Common Pug
25+ Mottled Pug
2x Ingrailed Clay
1x White-spotted Pug
1x Foxglove Pug
2x Pale Prominent
6x Treble Lines
1x Straw Dot
40+ Red Twin-spot Carpet
3x Water Carpet
1x Broken-barred Carpet
1x Brown Silver-line
30+ Clouded Silver
1x Scorched Carpet
1x Tawny Marbled Minor
2x Flame Carpet
5x Orange Footman
6x Pale Tussock
2x Grey Pug
4x Seraphim
1x Pebble Prominent
4x Nut-tree Tussock
3x Small Square-spot
2x Angle Shades
4x Waved Umber
2x Shuttle-shaped Dart
4x Least Black Arches
1x Marbled Minor
1x Spruce Carpet
1x Yellow-barred Brindle
2x Common Wave
1x Common White Wave
1x V-pug
3x Scorched Wing
1x Marbled White Spot
5x Scalloped Hazel
10x White Ermine
4x Peppered Moth
2x Chinese Character
1x Flame
2x Cinnabar 
1x Peach Blossom
2x Clouded-bordered Brindle
1x Buttoned Snout
1x Shoulder-striped Wainscot
1x Iron Prominent
1x Brindled Pug
1x Common Carpet
1x Blood-vein
1x Bright-line Brown-eye
2x Oak-tree Pug
2x Coronet
1x Alder Moth [NEW!]
1x Knot Grass
1x Herald
1x Grass Rivulet [NEW!]
1x Clay Triple-lines
1x White-pinion Spotted

Micro Moths

2x Endrosis sarcitrella
2x Epiblema cynosbatella
2x Bucculatrix nigricomella [NEW!]
1x Aspilapteryx tringipennella
4x Crambus lathoniellus
1x Aphomia sociella
5x Caloptilia syringella
1x Caloptilia stigmatella
1x Caloptilia semifascia
1x Agonopterix arenella
1x Plutella porrectella
8x Pseudargyrotoza conwagana
2x Cochylimorpha straminea
2x Epiblema cirsiana
1x Blastobasis lacticolella
1x Incurvaria masculella
2x Ancylis badiana
10x Syndemis musculana
3x Scoparia ambigualis
1x Alucita hexadactyla
2x Phyllonorycter harrisella
2x Monopis weaverella 
1x Mompha sp 
2x Mompha raschkiella
1x Nemapogon cloacella
1x Strophedra weirana
1x Cataclysta lemnata
1x Prays ruficeps/fraxinella
1x Cochylis atricapitana
1x Parornix sp
1x Coleophora sp
1x Anthophila fabriciana
1x Platyptilia gonodactyla [NEW!]
1x Ephestia parasitella unicolorella
-------------------------------------------------------------------------

Catch Report - 19/05/14 - Gadesprings - Hemel Hempstead - 1x 125w MV Robinson Trap and 40w Actinic Trap.

40 Macros and 9 Macros (49 species)

Macro Moths

1x Cinnabar
1x Figure of Eighty
4x Clouded Silver
1x Waved Umber
7x Flame Shoulder
2x White Ermine
5x Peppered Moth
3x Alder Moth
2x Brimstone
2x Small Square-spot
1x Pale Tussock
1x Orange Footman
10x Treble Lines 
1x Oak-tree Pug
1x Green Carpet
1x Chinese Character
1x Yellow-barred Brindle 
2x Pale Prominent
6x Heart & Dart
1x Shuttle-shaped Dart
2x Common Marbled Carpet 
1x Common Pug
1x Vine's Rustic
1x Rustic Shoulder-knot
1x Tawny Marbled Minor
1x Marbled Minor
1x Spectacle
1x Green Silver-lines
1x Iron Prominent
2x Small Clouded Brindle
1x Silver-ground Carpet
1x Scalloped Hazel
1x Lychnis
2x Oak Nycteoline
1x Pale Tussock
1x Coronet
1x Clouded-bordered Brindle
1x Light Brocade
1x Shuttle-shaped Dart
1x Buff-tip

Micro Moths

1x Dichrorampha sp
1x Anthophila fabriciana
1x Syndemis musculana
1x Tinea trinotella 
1x Pseudargyrotoza conwagana
2x Elachista maculicerusella
1x Plutella xylostella
1x Caloptilia robustella
1x Endrosis sarcitrella 

Ephestia parasitella unicolorella









 
Foxglove Pug









Mompha lacteella/propinquella










Mompha raschkiella










Small Clouded Brindle













Strophedra weirana










Treble Lines ab.obscura












Alder Moth











Buttoned Snout













Grass Rivulet











Dichrorampha sp











Caloptilia semifascia











Plutella porrectella










Caloptilia robustella










Aspilapteryx tringipennella











Bucculatrix nigricomella


1 comment:

  1. My word, Ben, Roger and Steve! What a catch! And, how exciting to see 5 completely new species. Did you manage to keep your eyes open at work after 3 hours sleep ;-)!?

    ReplyDelete