Forest Pests: Insects, Diseases & Other Damage Agents

Red-cedar Leafminer (Coleotechnites albicostatus)

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.

Description. Greenish gray body with pinkish red bands on dorsum. Orange-brown head, greenish brown prothoracic shield and anal plate; narrow grayish band at hind margin of segments. Up to 7 mm.

Food. Eastern red-cedar.

Life Cycle. One generation. Partly grown caterpillar overwinters in mined foliage. Mature caterpillar present in May and June.

Comments. In spring, the caterpillar dwells in the largest of the mined needles in its silken, feeding nest. The webbed nest includes not only mined needles, but also fragments of needles and frass (see below). The caterpillar becomes a pupa within a silk-and-frass cocoon that is located on the foliage within the web. Adults reared from the red-cedar leafminer depicted here closely match specimens of Coleotechnites albicostatus in the Canadian National Collection (J.-F. Landry, pers. comm.). In northeastern North America, C. juniperella and C. obliquistrigella also feed upon eastern red-cedar or common juniper. Until Coleotechnites is revised taxonomically, the identity of the miner depicted here must remain tentative. Eastern red-cedar also is eaten by the greenish leafminers, Argyresthia affinis and A. freyella. Argyresthia freyella has a whitish, spindle-shaped cocoon with brown spotting. Its cocoon, which is pictured by Rose et al. (2000), is attached to the outside surface of the foliage included in the web.

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