Pine Webworm(Pococera robustella)
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Description
Yellowish brown body with dark brown stripes; sometimes upper body overwhelmingly dark brown or with exceptionally broad stripes. Yellowish brown head marked with dark brown on lobes; yellowish brown prothoracic shield with several narrow, short, transverse dark lines. Broad middorsal stripe; broad subdorsal and thin supraspiracular stripes with narrow, fragmented stripe between them; thin, broken subspiracular stripe. Yellowish brown below spiracles and on venter. Up to 20 mm.
Food
Jack, pitch, red, and other hard pines.
Life Cycle
One generation. Pupa overwinters in silken cocoon in soil. Mature caterpillar present from August to October.
Comments
The young caterpillar mines needles. After it stops its mining, the pine webworm eats needles while it dwells in a silken tube in a webbed nest of needles and frass (see below). Several caterpillars may occupy the same nest. In southern New England, we have found most of the nests near ground level on pitch pine. The pine webworm previously was known as Tetralopha robustella.
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.
