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Photo#1368056
Ips sp.? - Pseudips concinnus

Ips sp.? - Pseudips concinnus
Santa Barbara County, California, USA
April 10, 2017
Size: ~5mm
Found floating in a vernal pool in burned Monterey pine habitat

Images of this individual: tag all
Ips sp.? - Pseudips concinnus Ips sp.? - Pseudips concinnus

ID P. mexicanus?
It was brought to my attention on inaturalist that P. mexicanus may be the better fit.

Looking at the images on Bugguide I'm having a tough time seeing a difference in the pinned specimens from each species. Bright Jr, D. E., & Stark, R. W. (1973) The bark and ambrosia beetles of California (Coleoptera: Scolytidae and Platypodidae) gives:

"Caudal half of pronotum finely, densely punctured, diameter of each puncture 0.03 mm or less, caudal margin of each puncture raised giving the surface a granulate appearance" = P cocinnus

vs

"Caudal half of pronotum sparsely punctured, diameter of each puncture 0.04 mm or more; surface not granulate, at least on caudal fourth of disk" = P. mexicanus

as the key break between to two. Mine seems to be more densely and coarsely punctured than either of the pinned beetles on Bugguide.

The antennal club sutures do look to be arcuate, which gets me to the key break between P. cocinnus and P. mexicanus; although the pronotal punctures are dense they do seem to be bigger than those on P. cocinnus and the location and host association (likely Pinus radiata) fit better with P. mexicanus.

Moved tentatively
Moved from Beetles.

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