Looking at lichens

 

 

I spent a day at Ian Rabjohns' house in Penallt last week looking at lichens and bryophytes.  Ian pointed out the old stone barn where he had been shown "larval tubes of a micro" by Dave Slade a few years before, and sure enough, there were plenty of lichen-covered tubes on the surface of Lepraria etc.  These were made by the uncommon 'clothes' moth Infurcitinea argentimaculella, which I have only seen twice in the county (imagos once at Dingestow and once at Caerwent).  There are also several records of larval tubes made by Dave Slade - from Penallt, Caerleon and 2 or 3 sites in Newport (duplication makes the records a little ambiguous).  A quick check of some walls here at Dingestow failed to reveal any larval tubes, but they must be here somewhere as I've seen the imago...

there were 4 larval tubes in the top photo, zoomed-in and ringed here