Author: (Saxesen, 1840)
Species Overview:
Adult: 14-18 mm wingspan (males slightly smaller than females); forewing ground colour olive-green to brownish basally, dark-brown to blackish in posterior half. Markings silver-grey to dark plumbeous, consisting of irregular fascia. Costal striae black. Hindwing dark greyish brown.
Larva: head yellowish brown to greenish brown; prothoracic plate brownish green; abdomen greenish; anal shield as abdomen.
Pupa: Anal segment dented posteriorly, provided with hooked setae; frons prominent [details pupa C. hartigiana].
Taxonomic Description:
Male:
Cymolomia hartigiana adults
Cymolomia hartigiana male
External characters: 14-16 mm wingspan. Palpi yellowish; head and thorax dark grey; abdomen brownish grey. Forewing dilated posteriorly; costa gradually arced; termen slightly oblique. Forewing ground colour olive-green to brownish basally, dark-brown to blackish in posterior half. Markings silver-grey to dark plumbeous, with a purplish hue, consisting of a basal patch, marked with some black striae; a median fascia divided by a black stria, at least costally, and some irregular fascia in terminal half. Costal striae black. Cilia brownish-grey, with a blackish sub-basal line. Hindwing small, subtriangular, slightly convex beyond apex; with anal fold in form of flap protruding beyond alar margin; dark greyish brown; cilia paler with dark sub-basal line.
male gen. C. hartigiana
Genitalia: Uncus short, bilobed, armed with subapical spines ventrally; socii large, drooping. Valva with long cucullus, the latter densely spined. Aedeagus short, with dentate crest on left wall; no cornuti present.
Female:
Cymolomia hartigiana female
External characters: 17-18 mm wingspan. Forewing less dilated posteriorly; hindwing more rounded dorsally; colour and markings similar to male.
female genitalia C. hartigiana
Genitalia: Sterigma well developed, consisting of a tubular prominence surrounding ostium bursae, and extending laterally and ventrally into a plate-like structure. Ductus bursae weakly sclerotized medially; ductus seminalis situated posteriorly; one funnel-shaped signum present in corpus bursae.
Biology:
The species has a single generation yearly. Moths fly from May to August. The larval stage most probably lasts from August until April. In the autumn, young larvae can be found mining the needles of the host plant. Most likely, they then overwinter till the spring of the next year. In the spring they feed between spun needles, and probably pupate in the larval habitation (Schröder, 1978).
Host plants:
Abies alba and Picea excelsa
Damage:
The species does not appear to be economically important. Feeding sites of older larvae are recognized by the large amount of withered, spun needles.
Distribution:
Northern and Central Europe to Eastern Russia, China, Korea and Japan.
Pheromone:
Pheromone unknown.
Attractantia:
Z 10-12Ac (Witzgall et al., 1996b)
Parasitoids:
Coccygomimus aquilonius japonicus Momoi (Ichneumonidae)
Pteromalus semotus (Walker) (Pteromalidae) (secondary parasite)