Spruce Needleminer (Taniva albolineana)

Taxonomy

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

Scientific Name

Taniva albolineana

Common Name

spruce 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

Green body with dark head and prothoracic shield. Dark brown head; similarly dark prothoracic shield with yellowish brown anterior and lateral margins. Narrow yellowish band at hind margin of segments. Up to 8 mm.

Food

Spruces, especially planted ones.

Life Cycle

One generation. Nearly full-grown caterpillar overwinters within its feeding nest. Mature caterpillar present from May to July.

Comments

After hatching, the young caterpillar mines needles. It later builds a nest by tying dead, mined needles and frass together with silk (see below). It overwinters within the nest and, after additional feeding, forms its green pupa in a gray cocoon. In spring, several caterpillars sometimes occupy the same webbed nest. Freeman (1967) and Johnson and Lyon (1991) also have illustrated the feeding damage of the spruce needleminer.