Stephen Roughley @stephenroughle3.bsky.social · 03/10/2026Pimpla rufipes (the Black Wood Wasp) - disturbed today by walking down the garden. Not the first I've seen but one the very few that's hung around for a photograph 020
Stephen Roughley @stephenroughle3.bsky.social · 29/09/2026Passing, even. Not charging admission! 😂🤦 010
Stephen Roughley @stephenroughle3.bsky.social · 29/09/2026If you're paying near the south side of Cambridge (A11/A505/M11-ish) you're welcome to have a look at them yourself! 100
Stephen Roughley @stephenroughle3.bsky.social · 29/09/2026Thanks Rob - I'll keep an eye on them and see what happens next! 110
Stephen Roughley @stephenroughle3.bsky.social · 29/09/2026They are generally very calm first thing in the morning. I'm less keen when they buzz you in the dark! (And even less keen when you wake up at 3 am and find one staring back at you from about 2 inches away in your pillow 😳 - very effective alarm clock!!!) 000
Stephen Roughley @stephenroughle3.bsky.social · 29/09/2026Oh Joy! I'm on hornets at the moment in mine (only so far had a maximum of 3 - still in "looking carefully where I put my fingers territory") - situations like yours there are when the 12 inch tweezers come out! 111
Stephen Roughley @stephenroughle3.bsky.social · 29/09/2026Sawston South Cambs #vc29moths - possible Ectoedemia rubivora mines on bramble in the garden yesterday afternoon? Thoughts @vc28nature.bsky.social @vc30moths.bsky.social ? #teammoth I could find lots of references to the egg being on the underside, but no photos - not sure my photos are the eggs? 110
Stephen Roughley @stephenroughle3.bsky.social · 17/09/2026They're so difficult. At one level, the ring flash on my Olympus TG-6 brings out so much amazing detail in the shades of black, and at another level just can't capture the sense of blackness without losing all detail - you've got the black without it looking featureless - great photo! 120
Stephen Roughley @stephenroughle3.bsky.social · 17/09/2026Sorry, no tips - they're right @#£&@*s for not showing them for me. Fridge, or a blast of CO2 and you might get lucky. Our Red Underwing is equally diffident. Which Catocala is this? 120
Stephen Roughley @stephenroughle3.bsky.social · 16/09/2026Err, yeah, lucky you! I don't know if I dare say that this year has been a quiet year so far for them 010
Stephen Roughley @stephenroughle3.bsky.social · 12/09/2026Was thinking Small Mottled Willow were fading from the trap as I opened it this morning. 13 in a line round the rim of the underside of the lid made me wonder again - final total 91 - easily beating my previous 53... Here's 7.5 of them #teammoth #cambsmoths 1162
Stephen Roughley @stephenroughle3.bsky.social · 10/09/2026Thanks Rob. I left them on the East Bank, so sounds like that's the end of the road as far as identifying these go in that case. Case closed! 000
Stephen Roughley @stephenroughle3.bsky.social · 10/09/2026Following yesterdays #norfolkmoths botanical blunder, here's another one. These I thought were all Sea Beet on the East Bank at Cley over the weekend, but I'm not sure they're even mines in the main. @vc28nature.bsky.social - have I now completely lost the plot?! 100
Stephen Roughley @stephenroughle3.bsky.social · 10/09/2026Thanks Richard. I must admit I thought sawfly when I first saw them (and wasn't entirely convinced by resplendella), and Rob Edmunds has confirmed that somewhere above 010
Stephen Roughley @stephenroughle3.bsky.social · 09/09/2026I'll bow to superior botanical knowledge. My mother-in-law still despairs at my approach to plant id which appears to be "oh, that's being mined by [x], so it must be [y]"... 021
Stephen Roughley @stephenroughle3.bsky.social · 09/09/2026Wondering whether these are Heliozela resplendella mines on Alder at @rspbtitchwellsnett.bsky.social ? And no clues for the mine on Hazel from same location? #teammoth #norfolkmoths @vc28nature.bsky.social @norfolkmoths.bsky.social 220
Stephen Roughley @stephenroughle3.bsky.social · 05/09/2026No - maybe just a bit of dodgy digiscoping! 110
Stephen Roughley @stephenroughle3.bsky.social · 05/09/202620+ Spoonbills at Cley this morning #norfolkbirding 180
Stephen Roughley @stephenroughle3.bsky.social · 03/09/2026Having a good year here in South Cambridgeshire 010
Stephen Roughley @stephenroughle3.bsky.social · 31/08/20263 NFY this morning - Centre-barred Sallow, Beautiful China-mark, Tree-lichen Beauty. A 2nd Dewick's Plusia , a 2nd Dark Spectacle, 2 more Delicates, 2nd autumn batch of Clancy's Rustic, silly number of Epinotia nisella and Ancylosis oblitella #teammoth #cambsmoths - year list now 556 species 080
Stephen Roughley @stephenroughle3.bsky.social · 30/08/2026Nice! L-Album has appeared in ones and twos in my garden in the last couple of years in South Cambridgeshire and I know others round about with similar experience. It's obviously slowly but surely on the move.. 010
Stephen Roughley @stephenroughle3.bsky.social · 29/08/2026I think most of us probably start with caddis - and probably because we start off mistaking them for moths? 😂 130
Stephen Roughley @stephenroughle3.bsky.social · 29/08/2026Indeed - I seem to recall finding some when I did some open last autumn 010
Stephen Roughley @stephenroughle3.bsky.social · 29/08/2026And lastly, not a leaf-miner, but still larva - this one was on a bramble out on the shingle bank, but no obvious sign it had actually been feeding there... Any answers to any of the above much appreciated! 010
Stephen Roughley @stephenroughle3.bsky.social · 29/08/2026Next.. Alder (Alnus sp.) - various galleries and blisters I've gone round in circles with and not convinced myself of an answer... 4/... 210
Stephen Roughley @stephenroughle3.bsky.social · 29/08/2026And then Common Reed (Phragmites australis) - I don't know if these can be pinned down to Cosmopterix scribaiella or C. lienigiella? 3/... 210
Stephen Roughley @stephenroughle3.bsky.social · 29/08/2026Next we have Bramble out on the shingle bank - I think Stigmella aurella but the very red edging is putting me off... 2/ 300
Stephen Roughley @stephenroughle3.bsky.social · 29/08/2026Sat 22-Aug-2026 - @rspbminsmere.bsky.social A thread of leaf-mines (mainly!) I can't identify - 1 post per host species... #teammoth #suffolkmoths @vc28nature.bsky.social @vc30moths.bsky.social - first up ~Blackthorn (Prunus sp.)... blister close to the edge of a leaf, no obvious gallery... 1/ 220
Stephen Roughley @stephenroughle3.bsky.social · 28/08/2026Forgot to tag #teammoth and #cambsmoths 070
Stephen Roughley @stephenroughle3.bsky.social · 28/08/2026Phyllonorycter oxyacanthae on one of the allotment pear trees earlier in the week was species #550 for the year 050
Stephen Roughley @stephenroughle3.bsky.social · 28/08/2026Looks very plausible but I'd defer to @vc28nature.bsky.social or @vc30moths.bsky.social 110
Stephen Roughley @stephenroughle3.bsky.social · 27/08/2026Goodness! The few that make it over to south cambs are still brown at best, often the stripe is barely visible! 010
Stephen Roughley @stephenroughle3.bsky.social · 26/08/2026They're lovely moths particularly when they're fresh like that one is. Come to the NI and Slender burnished brass lures too 040
Stephen Roughley @stephenroughle3.bsky.social · 25/08/2026Nice one. Always good when you get a gen det back and have never heard of the result let alone seen one before 020
Stephen Roughley @stephenroughle3.bsky.social · 25/08/2026Yep that's the one. Really annoying the first time I had one and could see it there on the front of the book and couldn't find it inside for ages! 020
Stephen Roughley @stephenroughle3.bsky.social · 25/08/2026And better in about 2047 for South Cambridgeshire? 😂 130
Stephen Roughley @stephenroughle3.bsky.social · 24/08/2026Interesting - I think I tried one the first year I realised I had it on my Apple tree but didn't get anywhere with it. Will have to look now! 110
Stephen Roughley @stephenroughle3.bsky.social · 23/08/2026Abundant yesterday at @rspb.bsky.social #minsmere in #Suffolk 020
Stephen Roughley @stephenroughle3.bsky.social · 23/08/2026Visited @rspb.bsky.social #minsmere yesterday - sobering to look up to Dunwich - nothing really visible from Minsmere except possibly a charred picnic table but eerie quietness realising the car park up on the heath was completely empty. Hoping nature has a moment to recoup before visitors return 010
Stephen Roughley @stephenroughle3.bsky.social · 23/08/2026Hummingbird hawk-moth on the dwarf buddleia at lunchtime today... #teammoth #cambsmoths 090
Stephen Roughley @stephenroughle3.bsky.social · 21/08/2026There are only "terrible pics" and extreme luck in capturing these in my experience 020
Reposted by Stephen RoughleyJohn Walters @johnwalterswildife.bsky.social · 21/08/2026The Pebble Hook-tips Drepana falcataria in my 'caterpillar zoo' are now ready to pupate. They first use silk to fold a living Birch leaf. The cocoon is formed within the fold. The leaf will fall into the leaf litter where the pupa will overwinter. Time lapse over 2 hours. Buckfastleigh, Devon 710720
Stephen Roughley @stephenroughle3.bsky.social · 21/08/2026It's very useful whenever I'm up in Scotland 110
Stephen Roughley @stephenroughle3.bsky.social · 20/08/2026Certainly not listed on eastscotland-butterflies.org.uk/scottishmicr... so unless very recent records exist then not previously recordedeastscotland-butterflies.org.ukScottish Micros - East Scotland Branch - Butterfly ConservationE 110