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 12 May 2015

Field Trip - Roughdown Common - Hemel Hempstead - 11/05/15



Last night we made our second field trip of the year to the Boxmoor Trust’s land, this time we favoured trying one of the best ‘species rich’ sites that we are lucky to be able to survey.
Roughdown Common is a mixture of chalk grassland, unimproved grassland and woodland.
The target for the night was Light Feathered Rustic, a Thyme feeder. Roger was confident that Thyme still grew here as it is on the list of plants for the site.
We possibly may have been too early for it as it didn’t, or perhaps it just wasn’t there.
Lights were on at about 8.45pm and we ran three different traps covering part of the chalk scrape, woodland and the grassland.
The weather was pretty good, a clearish sky but slowly clouding over and by about 11pm it was full cloud cover and we even felt a few spits of rain.
The breeze was Westerly and although it was quite light, it did have a bit of chill in it by midnight.

The moths were quite quick to react to the lights with oodles of Green Carpet coming in first then Red Twin-spot Carpets and then Brimstones.
Cockchafers were everywhere and sticking to our clothes, nets and one even managed to crawl up my leg, then another dropped out of my other trouser leg!

We also went back to base camp at Gadesprings to check the trap that we had left running there, it was pretty disappointing and full of midges, but a few species were new for the night.

It was really nice to see some early summer species.


Catch Report -  11/05/15 - Roughdown Common - Hemel Hempstead - 1x 125w MV Robinson Trap 1x 160w MBT Robinson Trap & 1x 80w Actinic + 26w CFL Suitcase Trap


50 Species





Macro Moths

1x Blood-vein
5x Brimstone Moth
6x Brindled Pug
2x Broken-barred Carpet
1x Clouded Silver
4x Common Carpet
2x Common Pug
1x Common Quaker
4x Common Swift
3x Common White Wave
2x Coronet
1x Coxcomb Prominent
2x Double-striped Pug
1x Early Grey
6x Flame Shoulder
20+ Green Carpet
15x Least Black Arches
5x Light Brocade
1x Lime-speck Pug
5x Nut-tree Tussock
6x Oak Nycteoline
2x Oak-tree Pug
12x Orange Footman
2x Pale Prominent
2x Pale Tussock
4x Pebble Prominent
1x Purple Bar
15+ Red Twin-spot Carpet
1x Rustic Shoulder-knot
1x Scalloped Hazel
2x Seraphim
1x Setaceous Hebrew Character
1x Small Phoenix
1x Streamer
1x Treble Lines
3x V-Pug
3x Waved Umber
1x White Ermine
1x White-pinion Spotted
8x Yellow-barred Brindle

Micro Moths
 
3x Nematopogon swammerdamella
2x Monopis weaverella
4x Agonopterix arenella
1x Aphomia sociella
2x Tinea trinotella
2x Teleiodes luculella
3x Syndemis musculana
1x Caloptilia semifascia
1x Plutella xylostella
1x Pseudoswammerdamia combinella


Catch Report -  11/05/15 - Gadesprings - Hemel Hempstead - 1x 125w MV Robinson Trap


11 Species


Macro Moths

1x Green Carpet
2x Common Swift
1x Buff-tip
2x Pebble Prominent
1x Brindled Pug
1x Nut-tree Tussock
1x Pale Tussock
1x Flame Shoulder

Micro Moths

1x Mompha epilobiella
1x Aglossa pinguinalis

Coronet












Broken-barred Carpet












Seraphim












Yellow-barred Brindle











Lime-speck Pug











Caloptilia semifascia

2 comments:

  1. Great write up, Ben. Made me laugh out loud! Cockshafers up one's trouser legs aren't to be recommended, lol. I'll keep my eyes peeled for Buff-tips next month, knowing roughly where the larvae fed and dropped to the ground. All the best, Lucy

    ReplyDelete
  2. Good effort mate- Nice Coronet!

    ReplyDelete