Common Juniper Leafminer (Coleotechnites gibsonella)

Taxonomy

Domain	Eukarya
Kingdom	Animalia
Phylum	Arthropoda
Subphylum	Hexapoda
Class	Insecta
Subclass	Pterygota
Infraclass	Neoptera
Superorder	Holometabola
Order	Lepidoptera
Superfamily	Gelechioidea
Family	Gelechiidae
Subfamily	Gelechiinae
Tribe	Litini
Genus	Coleotechnites

Scientific Name

Coleotechnites gibsonella

Common Name

common juniper leafminer

Maier, C.T.; Lemmon, C.R.; Fengler, J.M.; Schweitzer, D.F.; Reardon, R.C.; Caterpillars on the Foliage of Conifers in the Northeastern United States. Morgantown, WV. USDA Forest Service. Forest Health Technology Enterprise Team Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station. FHTET-2004-01. March 2004. 151 p.

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.