Common Juniper Leafminer(Coleotechnites gibsonella)
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Description
Light brown body with pink tint and with orange-brown (or darker brown) head, prothoracic shield, and anal plate. Prothoracic shield with light gray anterior margin. Up to 7 mm.
Food
Common juniper.
Life Cycle
One generation. Partly grown caterpillar overwinters in bundle of mined needles. Mature caterpillar present in April and May.
Comments
In summer and fall, the young caterpillar mines or hollows needles at the ends of shoots and ties the dead needles together with silk. In fall, it lines the center of the bundle with silk to make a chamber where it spends the winter. In spring, the caterpillar moves to new terminal growth, again binding hollowed needles together with silk (see below). This caterpillar can be identified by its color and by its distinctive damage to terminal needles. Two other miners on common juniper are Argyresthia annettella and Coleotechnites juniperella. Argyresthia annettella has a green caterpillar that forms its pupa in an open-mesh cocoon located outside the mine on the foliage. Little is known about the biology of C. juniperella.
Gallery
 Photo by Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station Archive, Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station, Bugwood.org |
References
Maier, C.T., C.R. Lemmon, J.M. Fengler, D.F. Schweitzer, and R.C. Reardon. 2004. Caterpillars on the Foliage of Conifers in the Northeastern United States. FHTET-2004-1. Morgantown, WV: USDA Forest Service, Forest Health Technology Enterprise Team; 151 p.
