Ips lecontei, male frons
Ips lecontei, female frons
Ips lecontei, male declivity
Ips lecontei, female declivity
Ips lecontei, male lateral habitus

Scientific Name

Ips lecontei Swaine, 1924

Synonyms

Common names: Arizona five-spined engraver, Arizona five-spined Ips (English)

Diagnostic notes

-Has five spines on the elytral declivity and is similar to I. confusus.
-Potentially sympatric with morphologically similar species I. confusus, I. cribricollis, and I. hoppingi.
-Males are distinguished from all other species with five declivital spines by presence of a split frons central tubercle just above the epistoma.
-Females with five declivital spines on the elytra, head frontal median tubercle absent, the spine 1 on the elytral declivity is closer to the suture than to the spine 2, pronotum length 1.0 to 1.1 times pronotum width.
-Females of I. lecontei cannot be distinguished morphologically from some females of I. grandicollis, however these species' ranges do not overlap.

Morphological Summary

females
Body. 4.0-4.7 mm long, 2.5-2.6 times longer than wide; pronotum 1.0-1.1 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 or with isolated tubercles; central carina absent; central tubercle absent; transverse carina absent; frons central fovea present or absent; circular tubercles above top of eyes present - more than one third of all frontal tubercles. Vertex and pronotum with stridulatory apparatus (pars stridens). Antennal club sutures acutely angulate.
Prothorax. Protibiae with three or 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 0.5-0.6 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 3-5 times as wide as adjacent striae. Elytral declivity with five spines per side, spine 3 largest; spine 1 (largest on 2nd interstria) closer to suture than spine 2; spines 1 and 2 separated at base by distance greater than height of spine 1; spine 2 closer to spine 3 than spine 1; spine 3 hooked, apex right-angled or 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 3 than spine 5 or 5 than spine 3; declivital integument shiny.

males
Body. 4.0-4.7 mm long, 2.5-2.6 times longer than wide; pronotum 1.0-1.1 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 present and split, separated from base of epistomal setae by 0-0.5 tubercle diameters; transverse carina absent or present; 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 0.5-0.6 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 3-5 times as wide as adjacent striae. Elytral declivity with five spines per side, spine 3 largest; spine 1 (largest on 2nd interstria) closer to suture than spine 2; spines 1 and 2 separated at base by distance greater than height of spine 1; spine 2 closer to spine 3 than spine 1; spine 3 hooked, apex acute or right-angled, 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

Honduras; Mexico (Chiapas, Chihuahua, Colima, Jalisco, Oaxaca, Sonora); USA (Arizona, New Mexico).

Hosts

Notes

Clade formed by (((I. apache + I. calligraphus) + I. lecontei) + I. cribricollis), 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 lecontei. 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=1715