European spruce bark beetle

The European spruce bark beetle (Ips typographus), also called the eight-toothed spruce bark beetle, is a species of beetle in the weevil subfamily Scolytinae, the bark beetles, and is found in Europe, Asia Minor and east to China, Japan, and Korea. As it moves from tree to tree, it brings wood-rotting fungi with it, destroying the commercial value of the timber. It creates branching galleries under the bark (in the phloem), weakening the tree; serious and prolonged infestations can create enough galleries to girdle and so kill the tree. It is a serious pest of Norway spruce, a major commercial forestry tree in Europe, but also affects pines, firs, and larches.