Forest Pests: Insects, Diseases & Other Damage Agents

Red Pine Tubemaker (Ocnerostoma species [undescribed])

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. Grayish yellow body with blackish head (at least on lobes), prothoracic shield, and anal plate. Grayish thoracic legs with dark tip; deep crease where segments meet. Prolegs greatly reduced in size; grayish venter. Up to 8 mm.

Food. Red pine.

Life Cycle. One generation. Partly grown caterpillar overwinters in silk-lined tube of needles. Mature caterpillar present in April and May.

Comments. The final instar of this caterpillar lives in a feeding tube constructed by binding four to six pine needles together with silk. Little else is known about this undescribed species. The native white pine tubemaker, Ocnerostoma strobivorum, mines the needles of eastern white pine before it constructs its tube; the European pine tubemaker, O. piniariella, has similar habits. Freeman (1960) has illustrated the mining damage of both of these described species. Ocnerostoma species never eat the ends of the needles that form their tubes. By contrast, the pine tube moth, Argyrotaenia pinatubana, and the jack pine tube moth, A. tabulana, routinely chew the ends of their tubes of needles.

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