Jack Pine Tube Moth (Argyrotaenia tabulana)

Taxonomy

Domain	Eukarya
Kingdom	Animalia
Phylum	Arthropoda
Subphylum	Hexapoda
Class	Insecta
Subclass	Pterygota
Infraclass	Neoptera
Superorder	Holometabola
Order	Lepidoptera
Superfamily	Tortricoidea
Family	Tortricidae
Subfamily	Tortricinae
Tribe	Archipini
Genus	Argyrotaenia

Scientific Name

Argyrotaenia tabulana

Common Name

lodgepole needletier

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

Green body with head marked with orange-brown on lobes. Head also with dark brown spot near stemmata and with horizontal dark brown bar behind stemmata. Greenish thoracic legs with one or two dark spots near middle and with dark tip. Up to 15 mm.

Food

Jack, pitch, and possibly other hard pines.

Life Cycle

Two generations. Pupa overwinters in silk-lined tube of needles. Mature caterpillar present mainly in June and July and again in September and October in southern New England.

Comments

The older caterpillar resides in a silk-lined tube centered between needles (see below). The food plant and the presence of feeding tube with a chewed end can be used to distinguish this species from other tubemakers on pine.