Description Young caterpillar-like larvae have a greenish body with darker heads. As they grow, faint reddish lines running the length of the body appear on the back and sides. The red color becomes more pronounced as they mature. They are found feeding between leaves which they have tied together with strands of silk.
Adults are agile fliers and difficult to detect.
At this stage and time they do not feed but trans-form to pupae in late April and early May, after which, the new adults begin to emerge in one to two weeks. Eggs are laid on blueberry plants, and larvae hatch and begin webbing together leaves and feeding in early to mid-July. In September, larvae move into the ground litter where they spend the winter. Currently, the major concern of larval fire-worm infestations is their appearance on field machinery and processing lines during harvest. Larvae are apparently jarred from the protective leaf areas during raking and collected mechanically.