110 MISC. PUBLICATION 273, U.S. DEPT. OF AGRICULTURE 



Figure 47. — The lodgepole needle miner {Recur v aria milleri) , X 2.25. 



peak of flight is in July, when eggs are deposited at the base of 

 needles, usually beneath the needle sheath. Eggs hatch within 2 

 to 6 weeks, depending on temperature, and one-third of the needle 

 is mined before winter. In the following spring the mining is com- 

 pleted, and the larvae transfer to another needle of the same year's 

 growth. They are fully grown by June, when pupation occurs 

 within the mined needle, and emergence follows in about 4 weeks. 

 Another species, Recurvaria moreonella Hein., mines ponderosa 

 pine needles in Colorado, Utah, Arizona, and Oregon. Periodically 

 it causes heavy loss of foliage around the Klamath Indian Agency 

 in Oregon. From 1925 to 1928, and again from 1945 to 1947, a 

 species identified as this one defoliated an area of several hundred 

 square miles of lodgepole pine in the upper Deschutes Basin 

 around Lapine, Ore. In size, markings, and habits this species 

 closely resembles R. milleri, except that during an epidemic it has 

 an annual generation with moths flying and laying eggs every year 



