Scolytus intricatus (Ratzeburg, 1837)

Beaver, Roger A., Ghahari, Hassan & Sanguansub, Sunisa, 2016, An annotated checklist of Platypodinae and Scolytinae (Coleoptera: Curculionidae) from Iran, Zootaxa 4098 (3), pp. 401-441 : 418-419

Scolytus intricatus (Ratzeburg, 1837)

Distribution in Iran. East Azarbaijan ( Samin et al. 2011), Guilan ( Modarres Awal 1997, Borumand 1998), Mazandaran ( Modarres Awal 1997), Iran (no locality cited) ( Knížek 2011).

General distribution. Throughout Europe, North Africa, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Turkey.

Biology. It breeds primarily in species of Fagaceae ( Carpinus , Castanea , Fagus , Quercus ), but sometimes attacks genera of Betulaceae , Salicaceae , and Ulmaceae ( Michalski 1973) . Recorded in Iran from Fagus orientalis , Quercus frainetto , Quercus sp. ( Fagaceae ), Pyrus communis (Rosaceae) , Ulmus spp . ( Ulmaceae ) ( Modarres Awal 1997, Samin et al. 2011). The biology, seasonal history, and natural enemies are discussed by Yates (1984), Doganlar and Schopf (1984), and Habermann and Schopf (1987, 1988). Maturation feeding is possible on a wide variety of trees, but part of the population constructs brood systems without maturation feeding ( Doganlar & Schopf 1984). In contrast to some other species of Scolytus (e.g. S. amygdali , S. multistriatus , S. scolytus ), the species does not use a sex-specific aggregation pheromone, but aggregates primarily in response to host attractants ( Hovorka et al. 2005). The possible role of the species in oak decline in Europe is discussed by Sall et al. (2014).

Comments. Aspicolpus carinator (Nees, 1812) ( Hymenoptera : Braconidae ) was collected as the parasitoid of Scolytus intricatus in Ardabil province (northern Iran) ( Gadallah et al. 2016).