20 MISC. PUBLICATION 273, U. S. DEPT. OF AGRICULTURE 
Another group of small moths, belonging to the genus Laspeyresia, 
are destructive to fir, spruce, and other cones. The larvae are less 
than one-half inch in length when full grown, pink or white in color, 
with a few bristles. The moths are small and dull colored. They 
are of the following species: ) 
Species Hosts 
Laspeyresia bracteatana Fern___.. White fir, red fir, and other firs. 
Laspeyresia youngana Kearf______. Spruce. 
Laspeyresia cupressana Kearf___.. Monterey cypress. 
Cones of incense cedar in Oregon are sometimes injured by the 
slugs of a sawfly (Augomonoctenus libocedri Rohw.) which does 
work similar to that of cone-feeding caterpillars. The adults are 
one-fourth to three-eighths of an inch long, shining blue-black, with 
the first five segments of the abdomen brick red. 
FIGURE 8.—Cone maggots (Lonchaea viridana) are commonly destructive to seeds of 
white fir. De 
CONE MAGGOTS 
The insects encountered in seed collecting probably more often 
than any other group are small, white or pink, legless maggots which 
emerge from the cones in vast numbers as these are spread out to 
dry. These are the larvae (fig. 8) of tiny gnats, midges, or flies. 
A few cause considerable injury to cones and seeds, whereas others 
do no appreciable damage. 
Cone and seed midges (Cecidomyiidae) are found in cones as small 
pink maggots, the larvae of small gall gnats or midges. The adults 
are small and very similar in appearance to mosquitoes. They lay 
their eggs on the young, green cones, and the maggots work within 
and cause little masses of resin to form among the cone scales or 
cause hard resinous galls to form on the scales or in the seeds. The 
damage from these insects is usually insignificant. Of the many 
western species, only one, Janetiella siskiyou Felt, from the seeds of 
Port Orford cedar, has been named. 
