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 4 June 2014

Roughdown Common - Field Trip - 02/06/14



I was joined by David, Roger and Steve at Roughdown Common for our second outing to this site this year.
We were probably a few weeks to early for peak flying species, but nevertheless it was great to see some species a little earlier than we have recorded them before (namely Snout and Double Square-spot)
Despite the warm and cloudy conditions, we had to wait a good hour and a half after lights on before we actually started seeing some variety which was a bit of a surprise as we were an hour into darkness with less than 15 species jotted down.
But at 11pm things went rather mad and the deluge started as the breeze dropped off.
By 1am the sky was breaking and there was a chill in the air and it was time to pack the 4 traps up.

Highlights were a single Pammene albuginana, confidently confirmed by the County recorder as the 3rd record for Hertforshire of recent times, although the hindwing needs checking for certainty.
We also got an early Coronet and 3 of the pretty metallic Eulamprotes unicolorella, which seems to be quite scarce?

All in all a pleasing night, if we were a few weeks later we may have done better with species count.


Catch Report - 02/06/14 - Roughdown Common - Hemel Hempstead - 2x 125w MV Robinson Trap, 1x 160w MBT Robinson Trap & 1x 80w Actinic Suitcase Trap.

Macro Moths 

1x Clouded Border
20+ Common Swift
25+ Clouded Silver
10+ Grey Pug
5x Mottled Pug
3x Silver-ground Carpet
2x Ghost  Moth (2 Fem)
10+ Common Pug
5x Green Carpet
2x Tawny Marbled Minor
8x Marbled Minor
1x Middle-barred Minor
10+ Heart & Dart
3x Straw Dot
2x Small Elephant Hawk-moth
15x Common Marbled Carpet
5x Flame Shoulder
2x Clouded Brindle
2x Pale Oak Beauty
2x Clouded-bordered Brindle (1 ab combusta)
2x Buff Ermine
1x Lime Hawk-moth
1x Freyer’s Pug
2x Nutmeg
 2x Small Square-spot
1x Oak nycteoline
1x Green Pug
1x Flame
3x Ingrailed Clay
1x Brown Rustic
1x Burnished Brass
2x Mottled Beauty
1x Coronet
1x Scorched Carpet
4x Peppered Moth
1x Pale Tussock
2x Small Phoenix
3x Middle-barred Minor
3x White Ermine
2x Broken-barred Carpet
6x Treble Lines
1x Pale Prominent
2x Purple Bar
3x Marbled White-spot
2x Brimstone Moth
1x Willow Beauty
2x Common Carpet
1x Least Black Arches
2x Silver-Y
3x Lime-speck Pug
1x Snout
1x Light Emerald
1x Buff-tip
8x Light Brocade
1x Common White Wave
1x Double Square-spot
2x Garden Carpet

Micro Moths

1x Pammene albuginana [NEW!]
2x Epinotia subocellana
15+ Pseudargyrotoza conwagana
40+ Cochylimorpha straminea
1x Glyphipterix simpliciella
5x Scoparia ambigualis
2x Adela degeerella
4x Udea olivalis
1x Tischeria marginea
1x Phycitodes sp
3x Eulamprotes unicolorella
1x Endrosis sarcitrella
2x Agonopterix arenella
1x Argyresthia abistria
1x Coleophora sp
1x Nematopogon schwarziellus
1x Aphomia sociella
2x Plutella xylostella
3x Celypha lacunana
1x Cnephasia sp
1x Caloptilia syringella
1x Tinea trinotella
1x Epiblema cynosbatella
2x Syndemis musculana
1x Teleoides luculella
10x Pandemis heperana
1x Caloptilia alchimiella
1x Agapeta zoegana
2x Epiblema trimaculana
2x Argyrotaenia ljungiana
5x Scoparia pyralella
2x Metzneria metzneriella
1x Hedya pruniana

Tischeria marginea











Pammene albuginana










Epinotia subocellana










Eulamprotes unicolorella











Phycitodes sp

1 comment:

  1. Congratulations on the Pammene albuginana! Very exciting to have such a rare Herts moth turn up. Keep up the great work :-)

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