Ips confusus, male frons
Ips confusus, female frons
Ips confusus, male declivity
Ips confusus, male declivity, spine 3
Ips confusus, female declivity
Ips confusus, male lateral habitus

Scientific Name

Ips confusus (LeConte, 1876)

Synonyms

Common names: piñon ips (English)

Diagnostic notes

-Has five spines on the elytral declivity, body length less than 4.5 mm, and frons densely tuberculate, without a median fovea, first declivital spine is closer to the second declivital spine than to the suture, third declivital spine obtuse or rounded.
-Males with frons central tubercle present, absent in females. 
-Some specimens distinguishable from I. paraconfusus and I. hoppingi only by characters of the female pars stridens (Lanier, 1970b) and DNA (Cognato and Sun 2007).
-May be sympatric with I. paraconfusus in California, and with I. hoppingi in Arizona. 

Morphological Summary

females
Body. 3.5-4.2(-5.0) mm long, 2.6-2.7 times longer than wide; pronotum 1.1-1.2 times longer than wide.
Head. Epistomal margin with uniseriate row of tubercles with gap at midline. Frons outline convex in lateral view; vestiture fine (not hiding part of integument); surface sculpture near epistoma densely tuberculate-punctate; central carina absent; central tubercle absent, without pair of circular tubercles on either side of midline; transverse carina absent; frons central fovea present; circular tubercles above top of eyes present - up to, or more than one third of all tubercles. Vertex and pronotum with stridulatory apparatus (pars stridens). Antennal club sutures acutely angulate.
Prothorax. Protibiae with four socketed teeth on apical half (does not include apical spine).
Elytra. Interstriae punctate (observed on interstriae 2 and 3 on middle third of elytral disc), punctures 0.3(-0.4) times diameter of adjacent strial punctures (punctures and striae measured at steepest part of puncture wall), interstrial setae longer than width of scutellar shield, interstriae (4-)5(-6) times as wide as adjacent striae. Elytral declivity with five spines per side, spine 3 largest; spine 1 (largest on 2nd interstria) closer to spine 2 than suture; spines 1 and 2 separated at base by distance less than height of spine 1; spine 2 closer to spine 1 than spine 3; spine 3 hooked, apex obtuse to rounded, with apical half asymmetrical in lateral view; spines 2 and 3 not on shared tumescence, not in line with spines 1 and 4 (posterodorsal view); spine 4 closer to spine 5 than spine 3; declivital integument shiny.

males
Body. 3.5-4.2(-5.0) mm long, 2.6-2.7 times longer than wide; pronotum 1.1-1.2 times longer than wide.
Head. Epistomal margin with uniseriate row of tubercles with gap at midline. Frons outline convex in lateral view; vestiture fine (not hiding part of integument); surface sculpture near epistoma densely tuberculate-punctate; central carina present or absent; central tubercle present and single, separated from base of epistomal setae by 0-0.5 tubercle diameters, without pair of circular tubercles on either side of midline; transverse carina absent; frons central fovea present; circular tubercles above top of eyes present - more than one third of all frontal tubercles. Vertex and pronotum without stridulatory apparatus (pars stridens). Antennal club sutures acutely angulate.
Prothorax. Protibiae with three socketed teeth on apical half (does not include apical spine).
Elytra. Interstriae punctate (observed on interstriae 2 and 3 on middle third of elytral disc), punctures 0.3(-0.4) times diameter of adjacent strial punctures (punctures and striae measured at steepest part of puncture wall), interstrial setae longer than width of scutellar shield, interstriae (4-)5(-6) times as wide as adjacent striae. Elytral declivity with five spines per side, spine 3 largest; spine 1 (largest on 2nd interstria) closer to spine 2 than suture; spines 1 and 2 separated at base by distance less than height of spine 1; spine 2 closer to spine 1 than spine 3; spine 3 hooked, apex obtuse to rounded, with apical half asymmetrical in lateral view; spines 2 and 3 not on shared tumescence, not in line with spines 1 and 4 (posterodorsal view); spine 4 closer to spine 5 than spine 3; declivital integument shiny.

Geographic Distribution

Mexico (Baja California Norte); USA (Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, Wyoming).

Hosts

Pinus spp. Known from P. edulis and P. monophylla.

Notes

Clade formed by (((I. confusus + I. hoppingi) + I. paraconfusus) + I. montanus), see Cognato and Sun (2007).

References

Cognato, A.I.2015. Biology, systematics, and evolution of Ips. In Bark beetles: biology and ecology of native and invasive species. Edited by F.E. Vega and R.W. Hofstetter. Elsevier, San Diego, California. Pp. 351–370.

Cognato, A.I. and Sun, J.H. 2007. DNA based cladograms augment the discovery of a new Ips species from China (Coleoptera: Curculionidae: Scolytinae). Cladistics, 23: 539–551.

EPPO. No date. Data Sheets on Quarantine Pests: Ips confusus and Ips paraconfusus. European and Mediterranean Plant Protection Organization. 

Wood, S.L. 1982. The bark and ambrosia beetles of North and Central America (Coleoptera: Scolytidae), a taxonomic monograph. Great Basin Naturalist Memoirs, 6: 1–1359.

Internet resources

https://www.barkbeetles.info/regional_chklist_target_species.php?lookUp=1706