''Pococera robustella'', the pine webworm moth, is a species of

moth Moths are a paraphyletic group of insects that includes all members of the order Lepidoptera that are not butterflies, with moths making up the vast majority of the order. There are thought to be approximately 160,000 species of moth, many of ...

of the family

Pyralidae The Pyralidae, commonly called pyralid moths, snout moths or grass moths, are a family of Lepidoptera in the ditrysian superfamily Pyraloidea. In many (particularly older) classifications, the grass moths (Crambidae) are included in the Pyra ...

. It is found in southern

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tota ...

and the eastern United States from

Minnesota Minnesota () is a state in the upper midwestern region of the United States. It is the 12th largest U.S. state in area and the List of U.S. states and territories by population, 22nd most populous, with over 5.75 million residents. Minne ...

New England New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York to the west and by the Canadian province ...

and south to

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, a ...

. The

wingspan The wingspan (or just span) of a bird or an airplane is the distance from one wingtip to the other wingtip. For example, the Boeing 777–200 has a wingspan of , and a wandering albatross (''Diomedea exulans'') caught in 1965 had a wingspan ...

is 22–25 mm. Adults are grey to brownish. The basal third of the forewing is dark grey to black, while the rest of the forewing pale grey, becoming darker grey toward the outer half. The hindwings are brown with darker shading toward the outer margin. The number of generations per year varies from three in north-eastern Florida to one in the northern part of the range. In Florida, adults are on wing from April to October. The larvae feed on the needles of various ''

Pinus A pine is any conifer tree or shrub in the genus ''Pinus'' () of the family Pinaceae. ''Pinus'' is the sole genus in the subfamily Pinoideae. The World Flora Online created by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and Missouri Botanical Garden a ...

'' species. Young larvae mine the needles of their host plant. Later, they spin a nest of silk webbing and

frass Frass refers loosely to the more or less solid excreta of insects, and to certain other related matter. Definition and etymology ''Frass'' is an informal term and accordingly it is variously used and variously defined. It is derived from the G ...

. They gather needles from around their nest and bring them back to the nest to eat. The web is occupied by several larvae. The larvae are light brown with darker longitudinal stripes and a light brown head with black pigmented markings.

Gallery

Image:Pococera robustella larvae.jpg, Larvae Image:Pococera robustella damage.jpg, Damage Image:Pococera robustella damage1.jpg, Damage

References

Moths described in 1848 Epipaschiinae Moths of North America {{Epipaschiinae-stub