Author: (Lienig and Zeller, 1846)
Species Overview:
Adult: 8-11 mm wingspan; forewings grey-brown basally, more brown mixed with blackish-brown in distal two-thirds, finely irrorate (tips of scales) with cream-white; median fascia edged on both sides with silvery or bluish metallic; ocellus obsolescent.
Larva: head and prothoracic and anal plates almost black; abdomen dull whitish yellow, tinged with red or brown; pinacula dark brown; anal comb strongly developed.
Pupa: 4.5-5 mm long; brown, head bearing a conical process; in a tough silken cocoon covered with wood particles and frass in the larval habitation.
Taxonomic Description:
Male:
Pammene ochsenheimeriana adult1
Pammene ochsenheimeriana adult2
External characters: 8-11 mm wingspan. Labial palpus and head black-grey, irrorate with white (tips of scales); thorax and tegula unicolorous grey-brown. Forewing ground colour white, basal area overlaid with grey-brown, distal two-thirds overlaid with brown mixed with black-brown, finely irrorate (tips of scales) with cream-white except interspaces between black-brown costal strigulae, these producing bluish metallic striae; markings black-brown; basal fascia obsolete, sub-basal and median fasciae narrow, moderately well-defined, median fascia often constricted or interrupted below costa, confluent with pre-tornal marking dorsally, edged on both sides with silvery or bluish metallic; ocellus obsolescent, indicated by metallic plumbeous striae; cilia grey, with a well-defined blackish basal line. Hindwing fuscous; cilia paler, with a dark sub-basal line (Bradley et al., 1979).
male gen. P. ochsenheimeriana
Genitalia: Tegumen with lobate process. Ventral margin of valva with shallow notch; cucullus oval; base of valva short, almost squared.
Female:
External characters: Similar to male.
female gen. P. ochsenheimeriana
Genitalia: Seventh sternite with triangular sclerotized region medially; length of this sternite twice or greater than diameter of ostium.
Variation:
The forewing colouration and markings may show some variation; the sub-basal and median fasciae vary in outline and can be rather obscure, and sometimes the median fascia is interrupted by a metallic stria below the costa (Bradley et al., 1979).
Biology:
Pammene ochsenheimeriana is an univoltine species. Moths fly from April till June. The larvae feed in buds of Picea which have been attacked by Epinotia nigricana and in dead or dying twigs or the bark of the tree. High numbers are reached especially on trees that are dying or severely damaged by Epinotia nigricana or Choristoneura murinana.
Pupation occurs in a tough silken cocoon covered with wood particles and frass in the larval habitation (Bradley et al., 1979).
Host plants:
Picea abies, Pinus sylvestris, Abies grandis, Abies sachalinensis.
Damage:
Pammene ochsenheimeriana is generally not a species of economic importance, but is often found on trees that are damaged by other Tortricidae species (Epinotia nigricana, Choristoneura murinana).
Distribution:
Europe to Asia Minor, Eastern Russia (Kuril Islands), China and Japan.
Pheromone:
Pheromone unknown.
Parasitoids:
Apanteles sp. (Braconidae)