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Pityococcus rugulosus lifecycle
8m. Adult male
8f. Nesting female
9. Dead Trees (this set)

It has been over 5 years now since the last stage of development was posted for the subject population from a Pinus edulis (pinyon) tree on Embudito Trl. (No. 192) at 6983 ft elevation in the Sandia Crest 7.5’ quadrangle, Sandia Mountains, Bernalillo Co., NM. Here is a picture of the host trees now from the same vantage point as their first view.

The trees are now completely dead. Dead needles on them suggest this occured within the last year or two. I saw no other pinyons on Embudito trail or stream bed in such a condition this day during my loop through such. The vast majority were as healthy as those that can be seen in background. There was one distressed pinyon on a hillside further down with half its branches dead. The dead ones had no needles, implying it had been that way for some time. Before finding this population, I had been looking for a wilderness population for two years since discovering one in a residental yard in town. This was the only one I found. The residential population has apparently disappeared, with the tree still alive. I suspect it was sprayed by the owner. This means there are now no known populations in NM, or perhaps anywhere else.

The possibility that the infestion killed the tree is obvious. I will report this to NMDA as a cause for concern.

The main pages for each linked image set documenting a stage of development for this species are linked here: