pale green. There are also four dark-green to black lateral stripes. N. abbotii larvae 
feeding on slash and longleaf pines in south Florida have pale-amber head capsules 
and pale, longitudinal stripes. 
Winter is spent as a prepupa in a cocoon and pupation occurs in the spring. 
Adults emerge as early as late March in the South. Eggs are laid in single rows of 15 
to 20 each, mostly on previous year’s needles, with the eggs of a row almost 
touching each other. Newly hatched larvae feed gregariously; older ones tend to 
feed singly. Prepupae spin tough, silvery-brown cocoons on the needles of the tree. 
There appear to be at least three generations per year in the South. First-generation 
larvae are found in May, second-generation larvae during July and August, and 
third-generation larvae from October to December (564). 
The redheaded jack pine sawfly, N. rugifrons Middleton, occurs in southern 
Canada and the Lake States where it feeds on jack pine. Mature feeding larvae are 
15 to 20 mm long, have an orange-brown head, and two dark, subdorsal stripes run 
the full length of the body to a black patch on the last abdominal segment. A row of 
conspicuous black supraspiracular spots extends backward along each side from the 
prothorax to the ninth abdominal segment. The underlying body color is white. 
Winter is spent as prepupae in the soil. Adults emerge annually in May and June, 
and oviposit in 1-year-old or older needles. Larvae of this early generation feed only 
on older foliage and damage to the host tree is slight. In those years when two 
generations develop, adults of the second generation emerge during July and 
August, Oviposit principally in current-year needles, and larvae feed on foliage of 
all ages. The chemical basis for this feeding behavior is the presence of relatively 
high concentrations of two antifeedant organic acids in new foliage during the 
growing season (624). When heavy infestations develop, jack pine may be almost 
completely defoliated by September or October and planted pines from 0.9 to 6.1 m 
tall may be killed. The tops of trees retaining 10 percent or less foliage often die the 
following spring. Trees in isolated plantations and windbreaks are most subject to 
severe damage (1295). 
The brownheaded jack pine sawfly, NV. dubiosus Schedl, also occurs on jack 
pine with N. rugifrons, and is somewhat similar in biology and appearance. N. 
dubiosus differs principally in the underlying yellow color of larvae and in the first 
annulus of the adult female saw, which has less than 10 teeth. A comparison of 
these two species has been published (82). 
Neodiprion virginianus Rohwer is found in Virginia pine from the Piedmont of 
North Carolina north into southern Pennsylvania, west into eastern Kentucky, and 
on sand pine in peninsular Florida. Eggs are laid in a row underlying the round side 
of a needle, beginning near the point of needle divergence and ending near the 
apex. Mature, feeding larvae are relatively short and stocky with a shiny black head 
and a lateral-longitudinal row of distinct and evenly spaced subquadrate black 
spots. There are at least three generations per year in Florida. A 62-hectare outbreak 
occurred in the Tampa Bay area of Florida during the fall of 1978, resulting in 
growth loss and some tree mortality. 
The European pine sawfly, NV. sertifer (Geoffroy), an introduced species first 
recorded in North America at Somerville, N.J., in 1925 (1060), is now widely 
distributed. It has been recorded from New England to southwestern Ontario, 
Michigan, Wisconsin, Ohio, Illinois, lowa, South Dakota, and south to Missouri. It 
has many hosts, particularly Scotch, red, jack, Japanese red, Table Mountain, and 
Swiss mountain pines. Eastern white, Austrian, ponderosa, shortleaf, and pitch 
pines also are fed on to some extent when they occur in mixture with more favored 
species. 
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