A needle miner, Coleotechnites sp., defoliated approximately 3,100 acres of ponderosa pine, Pinus ponderosa Laws. on the Flathead Indian Reservation, Montana, during 1978. Three other small areas in the Missoula Valley were infested also. Overwintering populations of larvae are low; thus, light defoliation is expected in 1979 in presently infested areas.