Pityokteines curvidens (Germar, 1824)

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 : 415

Pityokteines curvidens (Germar, 1824)

Distribution in Iran. East Azarbaijan ( Samin et al. 2011).

General distribution. Central and southern Europe, Ukraine, southern Russia, Turkey. One specimen, collected in 1909, is recorded from Japan ( Nobuchi 1974), but it has not been recorded again.

Biology. The species attacks species of Abies , and occasionally Larix , Picea and Pinus (Pinaceae) ( Stark 1952; Pfeffer 1995). No hosts have been recorded in Iran. The biology of the species is described by Chararas (1962), and the population dynamics during a mass outbreak in Germany are discussed by Kraemer (1950) and Hierholzer (1954). Podlaski and Borkowski (2009) discuss methods of estimating attack density on fallen trees. The aggregation pheromone has been studied by Harring (1978). The species usually attacks weakened or dying trees, but can sometimes attack apparently healthy trees ( Chararas 1962), and it is considered a damaging species to Abies in Europe and Turkey ( Chararas 1962; Yildiz et al. 2007).