This sawfly occurs throughout southeastern Canada and Eastern United States. It is sometimes a pest of young pine stands and plantations. Loblolly and longleaf pines are preferred hosts, but larvae may also attack shortleaf, pitch, slash and various other pines.
Young larvae feed on the outer portion of the pine needles leaving a strawlike inner core.
Older larvae strip branches and sometimes strip tender bark from limbs if foliage is scarce. Gerald Lenhard, Louisiana State Univ.