Ips stebbingi, male frons
Ips stebbingi, elytral disc
Ips stebbingi, male declivity
Ips stebbingi, female declivity
Ips stebbingi, male lateral habitus (injured specimen)

Scientific Name

Ips stebbingi Strohmeyer, 1908

Synonyms

Tomicus blandfordi Stebbing, 1909

Tomicus ribbentropi Stebbing, 1909

Diagnostic notes

-Has four spines on the elytral declivity, spine 3 acute or subacute, petiolate or nearly parallel-sided with pointed apex; elytral interstriae punctate throughout.
-Frons without central tubercle, median carina, or transverse carina.
-Morphological methods may not lead to reliable separation of all specimens from Palearctic species I. nitidus, and I. schmutzenhoferi, or from Nearctic I. borealis, I. pilifrons, or I. tridens.

Morphological Summary

females
Body. 4.1-5.3 mm long, 2.4-2.7 times longer than wide; pronotum 1.0-1.2 times longer than wide.
Head. Epistomal margin with uniseriate row of tubercles with elongate mesal tubercle or 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; transverse carina absent or present; 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 bisinuate.
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 0.3-0.4 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 2-3 times as wide as adjacent striae. Elytral declivity with four spines per side, spine 3 largest; spine 1 (largest on 2nd interstria) closer to spine 2 than suture or suture than spine 2; spines 1 and 2 separated at base by distance greater than height of spine 1; spine 2 closer to spine 1 than spine 3; spine 3 pedunculate (capitate), apex acute or right-angled, with apical half symmetrical in lateral view; spines 2 and 3 on or not on shared tumescence, not in line with spines 1 and 4 (posterodorsal view); declivital integument shiny.

males
Body. 4.1-5.3 mm long, 2.4-2.7 times longer than wide; pronotum 1.0-1.2 times longer than wide.
Head. Epistomal margin with uniseriate row of tubercles with elongate mesal tubercle or 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; transverse carina absent or present; 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 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 0.3-0.4 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 2-3 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 1 than spine 3; spine 3 straight sided with tapered apex or pedunculate (capitate), apex acute, with apical half symmetrical or 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

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

Hosts

Picea, Pinus spp. (also Abies, Cedrus)

Notes

Clade formed by (((I. longifolia + I. stebbingi) + I. schmutzenhoferi) + I. perroti), see Cognato and Sun (2007).
Can cause severe damage to forest stands (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.