Ips typographus
In 3 days ~10% in a week ~30%
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.
The species was first described as Dermestes typographus by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1758. He gave it the specific name "typographus" (engraver), and it acquired the common name "engraver beetle" for the appearance of the galleries it makes in wood.
In 1800, the Swedish naturalist Gustaf von Paykull described it as Bostrichus octodentatus. In 1860, the Russian entomologist Victor Motschulsky synonymised the species as Tomicus typographus. In 1909, the Japanese entomologist Yoshinao Niijima described... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bavarian Forest National Park | 🇩🇪 Germany |
More parks will be added in future updates.
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a European Spruce Bark Beetle sighting in Bavarian Forest National Park on a given day, based on 6 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 822nd most-seen of the 1115 insects we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 10%, and over a week to about 30%, if each day is a fresh chance.
February–April and August–September
In those months about 10% of wildlife watchers report a European Spruce Bark Beetle in Bavarian Forest National Park on a given day, against under 5% in May–July and October–January, the lowest months.
Between 9 am and noon
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most European Spruce Bark Beetle sightings with a recorded time, and about 8 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
Only Bavarian Forest National Park, in our data
Bavarian Forest National Park is the only park on Wallace's Line with enough records to rate European Spruce Bark Beetle sightings: under 5% of wildlife watchers there report one on a given day.
Same family: Curculionidae
The closest relatives of the European Spruce Bark Beetle that you can see in Bavarian Forest National Park (family Curculionidae, True Weevils) are Large Pine Weevil (about 10%), Green Immigrant Leaf Weevil (about 10%) and Nettle Weevil (about 10%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the European Spruce Bark Beetle is recorded against all the insects logged in Bavarian Forest National Park (6 verified sightings from 2019 to 2026), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
