Pine Needleminer (Exotelia pinifoliella)

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	Exoteleia

Scientific Name

Exoteleia pinifoliella

Common Name

pine needleminer

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

Brown body with dark brown head and prothoracic shield. Up to 6 mm.

Food

Jack, pitch, and other hard pines.

Life Cycle

One generation. Partly grown caterpillar overwinters in a mined needle. Mature caterpillar present from April to June.

Comments

After hatching, this caterpillar mines several needles. After it has spent the winter in a mined needle, it bores into additional needles and changes into a pupa within its last mine. At least five other needleminers infest pines in northeastern North America, including the European pine bud moth, Exoteleia dodecella, which eats the needles of introduced pines. Needles that were mined by the pine needleminer and related species are shown by Freeman (1960) and Rose et al. (1999).