Marsh Mallows at Goldcliff

Recent discoveries of larvae of the Gelechid Pexicopia malvella in seedheads of Marsh Mallow on Gower and near Llanelli led me to check the strong colony of Marsh Mallows at Goldcliff Pill.  Finding the larvae was remarkably easy: many unripe seedheads had a brown spot on them (on the seedhead in the photo it's at 10 o'clock from the middle), and opening them with my fingernails revealed a plump, pink-dotted larva.  Job done, I thought, but Steve Palmer from the Gelechid Recording Scheme pointed out that things are not so straightforward.  Another Gelechid, Platyedra subcinerea, feeds in the seedheads of other Mallows, and its larvae should be mature now, whereas those of Pexicopia should not begin feeding until late August.  Either species would be new for Gwent, but which one is present at Goldcliff?  Solutions include collecting some affected Marsh Mallow shoots and breeding on some larvae to adulthood, or attempting to catch adult moths with a Heath Trap among the Mallows, neither of which is entirely easy.

 

My visit to Goldcliff produced a few other Micros: 3 Phyllocnistis saligna from a Crack Willow, mines of Stigmella speciosa on Sycamore, Argyresthia pruniella from Cherry and Yponomeuta rorella from Willow.  Sweeping the saltmarsh was extraordinarily unproductive, but I eventually caught a Bucculatrix maritima.

 

Finally, this is presumably a dark Cydia splendana beaten from Willow, but given the paucity of Oaks at Goldcliff I am slightly confused.