ISSN 1911-2173

Scientific Name

Ips amitinus (Eichhoff, 1872)

Synonyms

Ips montanus Fuchs, 1913
(not Ips montanus Eichhoff, 1881, valid species name for a North American species)

Common names: small spruce bark beetle, eight-toothed spruce bark beetle (English); petit bostryche du pin (French); kleiner 8-zähniger Fichtenborkenkäfer (German)

Diagnostic notes

-Has four spines on elytral declivity.
-Differs from all other Eurasian Ips spp. by the straight antennal club sutures.
-Most I. perroti specimens are smaller (2.7–3.5 mm) than I. amitinus (3.5–4.8 mm).

Morphological Summary

sexes combined
Body. 
3.5-4.8 mm long, 2.5-2.7 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-punctatecentral carina absent; central tubercle absent or present and single, separated from base of epistomal setae by 1-3 tubercle diameters, without pair of circular tubercles on either side of midline; transverrse carina absent; frons central fovea 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 straight.
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 0.5-0.7 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(-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 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 spine3; spine 3 pedunculate (capitate), apex acute, right-angled or obtuse to rounded, 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

Austria; Belgium; Bosnia-Herzegovina; Bulgaria; Croatia; Czechia; Denmark; Estonia; Finland; France; Germany; Greece; Hungary; Italy; Latvia; Lithuania; Macedonia; Montenegro; The Netherlands; Poland; Romania; Russia: western; Serbia; Slovenia; Switzerland; Turkey.

Hosts

Pinus, Picea (also Abies, Larix)

Notes

Sister species (Cognato and Sun 2007) of I. shangrila.

References

Cognato, A.I.2015. Biology, systematics, and evolution of IpsIn 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). Cladistics23: 539–551.

Grüne, S. 1979. Brief illustrated key to European bark beetles. Hannover, Germany, M. and H. Schaper.

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.

Internet resources

http://www.padil.gov.au/pests-and-diseases/pest/main/135613