We report the Pitch Mass Borer clearwing moth, Synanthedon pini, from Vinton Furnace Experimental Forest, Dundas, Vinton County, Ohio, the first record for this state. A mature larva and two pupae were excised from resin masses of Scrub Pine, Pinus virginiana, a new host record, in early May 1999

Horn, David J

Purrington, Foster Forbes

English

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The Great Lakes Entomologist 
Volume 32 
Number 3 - Fall 1999 Number 3 - Fall 1999 Article 9 
October 1999 
Pitch Mass Borer, a New Clearwing Moth Record for Ohio 
(Lepidoptera: Sesiidae) 
Foster Forbes Purrington 
Ohio State University 
David J. Horn 
Ohio State University 
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Purrington, Foster Forbes and Horn, David J. 1999. "Pitch Mass Borer, a New Clearwing Moth Record for 
Ohio (Lepidoptera: Sesiidae)," The Great Lakes Entomologist, vol 32 (2) 
Available at: https://scholar.valpo.edu/tgle/vol32/iss2/9 
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1999 199THE GREAT LAKES ENTOMOLOGIST 
PITCH MASS BORER, A NEW CLEARWING MOTH RECORD FOR OHIO 
(LEPIDOPTERA: SESIIDAE) 
Foster Forbes Purrington 1 and David J. Horn 1 
ABSTRACT 
We report the Pitch Mass Borer 
clearwing moth, 
Synanthedon pini, from 
Vinton Furnace Experimental Forest, Dundas, Vinton County, Ohio, the first 
record for this state. A mature larva nd two pupae were excised from resin 
masses of Scrub Pine, Pinus virginiana, a new host record, in early May 
1999. 
Approximately 30 species of clearwing moths (Lepidoptera: Sesiidae) 
were 
listed from Ohio in 1987 by Purrington and Metzler (1987), based pri­
marily 
on voucher specimens 
kept in two research c llections housed at the 
Museum 
of Biological 
Diversity of The Ohio State University, namely The 
O.S.U. Collection of Insects and Spiders, and the moth and butterfly collec­
tion 
of 
the Ohio Lepidopterists. Recently we recorded th  capture of Synan­
thedon arkansasensis Duckworth & Eichlin for the first time in Ohio 
(Purrington and Horn 
1996). 
Here we newly report the presence of the Pitch 
Mass 
Borer, 
S. pini (Kellicott) in this state, and we record it in a new host, 
scrub pine, Pinus uirginiana Mill. 
According to Engelhardt (1946), S. pini is distributed from eastern 
Canada and New England 
along 
the Atlantic coast, in the Appalachian re­
gion of New York and Pennsylvania and in the Midwest. Taft et a1. (1991) il­
lustrate a male S. pini taken in Newaygo County, Michigan in 1987. They 
cite no collection data, but Eichlin and Duckworth (1988) show a photograph 
of the same specimen with its provenance. Engelhardt 
(1946) 
states that 
adults 
"seem to elude capture," 
and they apparently remain scarce in collec­
tions despite strong response by males to a synthetic sex attractant (Taft et 
a1. 
1991). 
[Optimum formulation of this binary attractant is an 8:2 ratio of 
Z,Z 
3,13-octadecadien-l-ol alcohol 
and its corresponding E,Z alcohol stereo 
isomer 
(W.H. Taft, 
personal communication)]. 
The 
life cycle 
of the eastern pitch mass borer is apparently two years, 
like that of its two western congeners, S. nouaroensis (Hy. Edwards) and S. 
sequoiae (Hy. Edwards) (Eichlin and Duckworth 1988). Hosts are all 
Pinaceae, especially white pine, Pinus strobus and Norway spruce, Picea 
abies. Several other pines and spruces have been repo ted as hosts. 
IDepartment of Entomology, The Ohio State University, 1735 Neil Avenue, Colum­
bus, Ohio 43210. 
1
Purrington and Horn: Pitch Mass Borer, a New Clearwing Moth Record for Ohio (Lepidopte
Published by ValpoScholar, 1999
200 THE GREAT LAKES ENTOMOLOGIST Vol. 32, No.3 
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 
On 
5 
May 1999 we xtracted a m ture larva and two teneral S. pini 
pupae from resinous masses on boles of Scrub Pin , Pinus virginiana. Host 
trees were ca. 35 cm DBH, and part of a local concentration of this pine that 
is otherwise widely and thinly scattered in an upland mixed-oak forest com­
prising the Vinton Furnace Experimental Forest near Dundas, Vinton 
County, 
in southeastern Ohio. This forest is ca. 60 years old, and co-managed 
by Mead Paper Co. and the USDA Forest Service. 
Braun 
(1961) 
notes native scrub pine is widespread in Ohio, especi lly on 
non-calcareous soils of disturbed areas. It is the most common of native pines 
in southeastern 
Ohio (Dean 
et al. 1946). 
All three immature S. pini remained alive for at least ten days. By 17 
May the larva and 
one 
pupa had died. The remaining pupa was darkening, 
with 
blue-black scales visible 
on the abdominal terga co trasting vividly with 
the 
orange 
tergum of abdominal segment four, by which bot sexes of S. pini 
can 
be diagnosed. However, 
this second pupa also failed to eclose. All thr e 
specimens are retained as vouchers in the Departmental collections. 
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 
We thank Dave Hosack, U.S.D.A. Forest Service, Manager of the Vinton 
Furnace Experimental Forest, 
for 
his consistently generous help with 
tics. This research was supported by funds provided by the USDA Forest 
vice, Northeastern Forest Experiment Station. 
LITERATURE CITED 
Braun, E. L. 1961. The woody plants of Ohio: trees, shrubs, and woody climbers: na­
tive, naturalized, and escaped. Ohio Stat  Univ. Press. 362 pp. 
F. w., L. 
C. 
Chadwick and W. F. Cowen. 1946. Ohio trees. BulL 185, Ohio State
Agric. Ext. SerVo 127 pp. 
Eichlin, T. D. and W D. Duckworth. 1988. Sesiodea: Sesiidae, In: RB. Dominick (ed.), 
The moths of
America 
north of Mexico including Greenland, fasc. 5.1. 176 pp. 
Engelhardt, G. P. 
1946. 
The North American clear-wing moths of the family 
idae. U.S. NatL Mus  BulL 190. 222 pp. 
Purrington, 	F. F. and 
D. 
J. Horn. 1996. Clearwing moths captured by ultraviolet light 
traps in southern 
Ohio (Lepidoptera: Sesiidae). 
Great Lakes EntomoL 29(4):191­
193. 
Purrington, F. F. and E. H. Metzler. 1987. Checklist of Ohio moths N: Lepidoptera: 
Sesiidae. Ohio Lepidop. 9(4): 48. 
Taft, W. H., D. R Smitley and J. W. Snow. 1991. A guide to the clearwing borers (Sesi­
idae) of the north centr l United States. North Central Reg. PubL 394, Mich. St. 
Univ., E. Lansing. 30 pp. 
2
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Pitch Mass Borer, a New Clearwing Moth Record for Ohio (Lepidoptera: Sesiidae)

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Pitch Mass Borer, a New Clearwing Moth Record for Ohio (Lepidoptera: Sesiidae)

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