However, caterpillars are much larger and creamy white to dark gray-brown in body color, rather than orangish. As they grow, they tunnel into shoot tips and produce protective webbing around their feeding sites. Fecal material and masses of resin accumulate on the outside of infested tips. The pupae wriggle out prior to adult moth emergence, leaving the empty pupal skin in the end of the tunnels. In central Texas, four to five generations may occur per year with overlapping generations occurring in the fall, while in north Texas there may be only two.
Caterpillars have chewing mouthparts.
Adults have siphoning mouths. This species is the main pest of Texas grown Virginia pines produced as Christmas trees. It also attacks other young southern pine trees, with shortleaf and loblolly pines less than 15 feet tall most susceptible to attack, and is a serious pest in seed orchards and forest tree nurseries. Injured buds and shoots of pines turn brown and die. Trees so deformed have a lower value and can be unsightly.