Ips longifolia, frons
Ips longifolia, frons
Ips longifolia, declivity
Ips longifolia, declivity (3rd spine on right broken)
Ips longifolia, lateral habitus

Scientific Name

Ips longifolia (Stebbing, 1909)

Synonyms

Common name: chir pine Ips.

Diagnostic notes

-Has four spines on the elytral declivity,with spine 1 closer to suture than to spine 2, spine 3 is petiolate.
-Elytral disc with punctures on interstriae 2 and 3.
-Frons without median fovea, and with many of tubercles above level of eyes.  
-Morphological characteristics are nearly indistinguishable from sister species I. stebbingi; also similar to Palearctic I. subelongatus, and males of the Nearctic I. pilifrons.

Morphological Summary

sexes combined
Body. 4.7-6.3 mm long, 2.5-2.7 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; transverse carina present, punctate; 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 or without stridulatory apparatus (pars stridens). Antennal club sutures bisinuate.
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(-4) times as wide as adjacent striae. Elytral declivity with four 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 pedunculate (capitate), apex acute or right-angled, with apical half asymmetrical in lateral view; spines 2 and 3 on shared tumescence, not in line with spines 1 and 4 (posterodorsal view); declivital integument shiny.

Geographic Distribution

Bhutan; China (Xinjiang); India (Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh); Nepal; Pakistan.

Hosts

Pinus spp. Principally P. roxburghii.

Notes

Sister species of I. stebbingi (Cognato and Sun 2007). Larger clade formed by (((I. longifolia + I. stebbingi) + I. schmutzenhoferi) + I. perroti), see Cognato and Sun (2007).
`No significant difference between males and females` (Schmutzenhofer 1988)
`No records of long-lasting epidemics` (Schmutzenhofer 1988)

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.

Knížek M. 2011. Scolytinae. In Catalogue of Palaearctic Coleoptera, Vol. 7. Edited by I. Löbl and A. Smetana. Apollo Books, Stenstrup, Denmark,  Pp. 204–251.

Schmutzenhofer, H. 1988. Mass outbreaks of Ips bark beetles in Bhutan and the revision of genus Ips DeGeer for the Himalayan Region. In Integrated control of scolytid bark beetles. Edited by T.L. Payne and H. Saarenmaa. International Union of Forest Research Organizations, Vancouver, Canada. Pp. 345‑255.