Cochylidia heydeniana

• Subfamily: Tortricinae, Cochylini
• Wingspan: 09-13 mm
• Flight period: Apr - Aug
• Spread: Uncommon
• Host plants: Asteraceae

Information

The Cochylidia heydeniana also known as Blue-fleabane Conch is a moth of the Tortricidae family, subfamily Tortricinae, with wingspan of about 09-13 mm.
Distributed in most of Europe with the exception of Ireland and Holland. *
Its range extends to China, Mongolia, Korea, Russia and Japan.***
In Italy it is absent from Sardinia. *

The front wings of Cochylidia heydeniana have a light ocher or whitish background color, with undefined brown or hazelnut markings that fade into dark brown and black in the marginal area and near the edge.
Well-defined median band of hazelnut color that tends to fade towards the costa. The costa is brown-brown in the basal area, shaded in the background color after the median band with hazelnut and black markings near the apex.

A triangular dark spot is present in the submarginal region near the inner corner. The inner corner sometimes has a dark brown or black border that extends over the fringes of the wing with a dashed pattern and which decreases in intensity moving towards the apex.

The rear wing is gray with long darker fringes at the base, as an edge at the edge of the wing.
The variability of the species includes the total absence of darker markings as well as a flattening of the lighter markings on the background color.

Bivoltine adults are visible from April to May in the first generation and again in July in the second. The habitat consists of dry pastures, desert and sand dunes

The larvae of Cochylidia heydeniana feed on Erigeron acris, Conyza canadensis, Solidago virgaurea and Pulicaria dysenterica feeding on both seeds and shoots.


* Lepidoptera mundi https://lepidoptera.eu/ - Fauna Europea https://fauna-eu.org/
** Bestimmungshilfe für die in Europa nachgewiesenen Schmetterlingsarten - http://lepiforum.de/
*** Sun, Y.-h. & H.-h. Li, 2012: Review of the genus Cochylidia Obraztsov (Lepidoptera: Tortricidae: Cochylini) in China Zootaxa 3268 - https://www.researchgate.net/