Paracroesia abievora

Author: (Issiki, 1961)

Species Overview:

Adult: 10-14 mm wingspan; forewing ground colour ochreous yellow; fasciate markings grey suffused with blue; black dots present in apical portion of the wing. Hindwing brownish grey.
Larva: average length 9 mm; head pale yellowish brown, postgenal area and area of stemmata dark; body light green; prothoracic shield and thoracic legs yellowish brown; anal shield and pinacula pale; anal fork developed.

Taxonomic Description:

Male:

Paracroesia abievora male
Paracroesia abievora adult
External characters: 11-15 mm wingspan. Labial palpus, head and thorax orange yellow; abdomen brownish. Forewing slightly expanding terminally; costa gently arced; apex pointed; termen strongly oblique. Ground colour ochreous yellow; markings grey suffused with blue, consisting of three oblique fasciae and greyish suffusion terminally. Some black dots present in apical portion of the wing. Cilia ochreous yellow. Hindwing brownish grey; cilia concolorous with ground colour (Razowski, 1984; Yasuda, 1975b).

male genitalia P. abievora
Genitalia: Tegumen delicate; socius drooping, short, rounded, provided with a thin process armed with long bristles; tuba analis broad, membranous except for median belt, covered by minute spines; vinculum fairly broad. Valva short, with well-developed costa and strong sacculus provided with distinct spined termination; hairs present in median and posterior portions of disc; brachiola broad, weakly tapering basally; transtilla well sclerotized, arced. Aedeagus with large coecum penis; no cornuti present.

Female:

External characters: Markings less conspicuous than in male.

female genitalia P. abievora
Genitalia: Sterigma developed as a postvaginal plate with lateral arms which tapers apically; antrum short, well sclerotized; signum in form of deeply concave plate devoid of any spines.

Biology:

This species only has one generation yearly. Moths fly from late April to late May. Young larvae hibernate (Yasuda, 1975b).

Host plants:

Abies firma, Abies sachalinensis, Tsuga sieboldii

Damage:

The larva mines from the tip of a needle almost to the base. Later it ties three or four needles together into a bundle or tube, and lines the interior of the tube with silk (Yasuda, 1975b).

Distribution:

Russia: Primorsk; Japan: Honshu; Korea.

Pheromone:

Pheromone unknown.

%LABEL% (%SOURCE%)