Ips montanus, male frons
Ips montanus, frons, sex unknown
Ips montanus, female frons
Ips montanus, female elytral disc
Ips montanus, male declivity
Ips montanus, declivity, spine 3
Ips montanus, female declivity
Ips montanus, male lateral habitus
Ips montanus, male lateral habitus

Scientific Name

Ips montanus (Eichhoff, 1881)

Synonyms

Ips vancouveri Swaine, 1916

Note: Ips montanus Fuchs, 1913 (junior homonym) is a synonym of European species Ips amitinus (Eichhoff, 1872), and is not the same as Ips montanus (Eichhoff, 1881).

Diagnostic notes

-Has five spines on the elytral declivity and its general appearance is similar to I. confusus.
-Potentially sympatric with I. paraconfusus in northern California and Oregon.
-Differs from I. paraconfusus by the absence of the frontal fovea; the male major medial frontal tubercle displaced from the epistoma by at least its own diameter; and larger, 4.6–5.4 mm (Wood 1982).

Morphological Summary

females
Body. 4.6-5.4(-5.8) mm long, 2.5-2.7 times longer than wide; pronotum 1.1-1.3 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 present or absent; central tubercle absent or present and single, separated from base of epistomal setae by 1-4(-5) tubercle diameters, without pair of circular tubercles on either side of midline; transverse carina absent; frons central fovea present or absent; 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 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 (0.4-)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 2-3 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 greater than height of spine 1; spine 2 closer to spine 1 than spine 3 or 3 than spine 1; spine 3 hooked, apex acute or right-angled, with apical half asymmetrical in lateral view; spines 2 and 3 on or 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. 4.6-5.4(-5.8) mm long, 2.5-2.7 times longer than wide; pronotum 1.1-1.3 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 single, separated from base of epistomal setae by 1-4(-5) tubercle diameters, without pair of circular tubercles on either side of midline; transverse carina absent; frons central fovea present or absent; circular tubercles above top of eyes present - up to, or more than one third of all 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 (0.4-)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 2-3 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 or greater than height of spine 1; spine 2 closer to spine 1 than spine 3 or 3 than spine 1; spine 3 hooked, apex acute or right-angled, with apical half asymmetrical in lateral view; spines 2 and 3 on or 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.

Geographic Distribution

Canada (British Columbia); USA (California, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington).

Hosts

Pinus spp. Principally P. monticola

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.

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=1717