The newly hatched larva is cream colored with a black head. Nantucket pine tip moth pupa. The Nantucket pine tip moth overwinters as pupae in the damaged branch terminals of infested pine trees. Adults emerge from these pupae in March and April and then mate. Moths are active from early evening until dusk, spending the day at rest on trees.
Females begin laying eggs about two days after emergence.
Studies in Georgia have found that first generation females lay an average of 54 eggs per female and second generation females lay an average of 26 eggs. Eggs are laid on the needles or occasionally on the buds or twigs near the tips of the branches. The eggs may take as long as 30 days to hatch if cool weather follows egg laying in the spring, but in warm weather they hatch in five to ten days. The newly hatched larva constructs a small silken web in the axil formed by a needle and the stem. The larvae feed for a few days on the base of the needles and on the surface of the stem.