growing tips. The larvae bore into the tips and mine along the twigs, causing the 
foliage to turn brown. Winter 1s spent in the larval stage in a mine, and there is one 
generation per year. Ornamental northern white-cedar is subject to serious injury. 
Coleotechnites piceaella (Kearfott) occurs commonly from Maine to Colorado 
and from the Maritime Provinces to Alberta in Canada. Its hosts are white, blue, 
Engelmann, Norway, red, and black spruces. The adult is light gray and has a 
wingspread of about 12 mm. The head and thorax are pale yellow to whitish. The 
forewings are buff or ochreous near the base, shading to fuscous at the apex, and 
are marked with dark-gray, diagonal crossbands and a few conspicuous black spots. 
The hindwings are broad and gray with a silvery sheen; the abdomen and legs are 
ochreous, sprinkled with gray. Full-grown larvae are reddish to cinnamon brown 
and about 8 mm long. 
Adults are active from June to late July, depending somewhat on season and 
locality. Eggs are laid singly or, rarely, in groups of two or three either between the 
axils of current-year needles, in insect-damaged or mechanically damaged needles, 
in insect-damaged cones, or in spent staminate flowers. Some also may be depos- 
ited at the base of needles or inserted between the scales of sound cones. The larvae 
feed as miners in healthy needles, in needles and cones damaged by other insects, 
in spent staminate flowers, and in dead needles on shoots damaged by late spring 
frosts (802). Winter is spent in the larval stage, and there is one generation per year. 
Damage is usually not very injurious, but may be important on ornamentals. 
Other eastern species in the genus Coleotechnites include C. juniperella (Kear- 
fott) that mine the needles of redcedar and common juniper in the Northeastern 
States, C. dorsivittella (Zeller) that feeds on sweetgum, and C. variella (Chambers) 
that feeds on baldcypress. Heavy infestations of C. variella have killed the top 60 or 
90 cm of baldcypress trees up to 6 m tall in Ohio. C. chillcotti Freeman is a 
common needleminer of longleaf pine in Louisiana. The morphology of the pupa is 
discussed (94). 
The pine needleminer, Exoteleia pinifoliella (Chambers), occurs in southeastern 
Canada and south to Georgia and Texas. Jack, pitch, and shortleaf pines are 
preferred hosts, but it has also been observed feeding on Virginia, Scotch, longleaf, 
loblolly, and red pines. The adult has a wingspread of about 9 mm. The forewing is 
reddish to golden brown and is marked by four narrow, grayish bands. The 
hindwings are wider than the forewings. Full-grown larvae are pinkish and about 6 
mm long. 
Females deposit their eggs in recently vacated, mined needles from May to July, 
depending on location. Young larvae vacate the old mined needles and bore into the 
bases of current-year needles, killing them within 2 or 3 weeks. Older larvae mine 
in both old and new needles, killing the apical portions beyond the entrance holes. 
Winter is spent in the larval stage, and there may be two or more generations per 
year (4/8). Forest-grown trees are occasionally infested heavily, but are seldom 
injured seriously. However, heavy infestations on ornamentals or in plantations may 
be serious. The mite Pediculoides ventricosus (Newport) appears to be an effective 
predator in some areas. It is reported to have destroyed more than 75 percent of late 
instars in infestations in North Carolina (74). 
Exoteleia dodecella (L.), the pine bud moth, was discovered in the Niagara 
Peninsula, Ontario, in 1928, and now occurs throughout southern Ontario. As far 
as known, it has not yet crossed the border into the United States. Its preferred hosts 
appear to be Scotch and Swiss mountain pines, but several other pines such as 
eastern white, red, jack, and Austrian may be attacked in heavily infested areas. 
136 
