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

Thursday 9 April 2015

Steady as she goes

Well things have gone a bit quiet for me lately.
I trapped on Tuesday night expecting a new species for the year but I didn't get any (how spoilt does that sound!) An increase in Micro's was positive though.

I'm still missing Lead-coloured Drab and Twin-spotted Quaker from the year list....will the late Spring/early Summer species start emerging fast with this milder weather and scupper my chances of both of these species this year?
Time will tell!


Catch Report -  07/04/15 - Back Garden - Stevenage - 1x 125w MV Robinson Trap

Macro Moths

7x Common Quaker
1x Small Quaker
1x Clouded Drab
10x Hebrew Character


Micro Moths

1x Diurnea fagella
1x Emmelina monodactyla
2x Mompha subbistrigella
2x Amblyptilia acanthadactyla

Mompha subbistrigella
 

5 comments:

  1. Have you still got the Mompha, Ben? Given the brown streaking and general pale ground colour, I would say it's probably one of the 'scarcer' members of the genus (M. jurassicella/bradleyi).

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  2. Hi Billy. I have indeed. I will get it checked out.
    It seems a lot browner in my photo than real life and I do get this moth commonly in the garden with just a few records of divisella.

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  3. Nice one Ben - yeah, check it out under a microscope - and let us know the outcome!

    Cheers

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  4. Hi Billy, it is just a very brown subbistrigella! They obviously vary quite a bit in ground colour.

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  5. Thanks for getting back to me Ben - was this dissected? I've never seen (in person or through images) an example of subbistrigella with this extent of brown on the forewing, such a prominent white cross-line, or indeed such a pale area behind the head. Can't argue with a dissection though! Great little moth anyhow.

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