Pine Webworm Moth

Pococera robustella

''Pococera robustella'', the pine webworm moth, is a species of moth of the family Pyralidae. It is found in southern Canada and the eastern United States from Minnesota to New England and south to Florida.
Pine Webworm Moth (Pococera robustella) - Frass Nest Frass nest on a Loblolly pine (Pinus taeda) sapling at a dense mixed forest edge. 

Adult Pine Webworm moths typically lay eggs on pine needles. Larvae then hatch and mine the interior of the pine needles until they are old enough (usually 4th to 6th instars) to spin their own nests like this one --made of frass and silk. Larvae may exit the nest to bring back pine needles for nourishment.  Once the larvae are mature, they drop to the ground where they spin cocoons and ultimately pupate. Geotagged,Pococera robustella,United States,Winter

Appearance

The 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.

Food

The larvae feed on the needles of various ''Pinus'' species. Young larvae mine the needles of their host plant. Later, they spin a nest of silk webbing and frass. 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.

References:

Some text fragments are auto parsed from Wikipedia.

Taxonomy
KingdomAnimalia
DivisionArthropoda
ClassInsecta
OrderLepidoptera
FamilyPyralidae
GenusPococera
SpeciesP. robustella