Scolytinae

A bark beetle is the common name for the subfamily of beetles Scolytinae. Previously, this was considered a distinct family (Scolytidae), but is now understood to be a specialized clade of the "true weevil" family (Curculionidae). Although the term "bark beetle" refers to the fact that many species feed in the inner bark (phloem) layer of trees, the subfamily also has many species with other lifestyles, including some that bore into wood, feed in fruit and seeds, or tunnel into herbaceous plants. Well-known species are members of the type genus Scolytus, namely the European elm bark beetle S. multistriatus and the large elm bark beetle S. scolytus, which like the American elm bark beetle Hylurgopinus rufipes, transmit Dutch elm disease fungi (Ophiostoma). The mountain pine beetle Dendroctonus ponderosae, southern pine beetle Dendroctonus frontalis, and their near relatives are major pests of conifer forests in North America. A similarly aggressive species in Europe is the spruce ips Ips typographus. A tiny bark beetle, the coffee berry borer, Hypothenemus hampei is a major pest on coffee plantations around the world.

Scolytinae

Uncredited · Public Domain · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Also called
bark beetlePBDB
Sits inside
CurculionidaePBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Arthropoda
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Insecta

Time the record covers

At least 121 million years on record.

The record covers at least 121.4 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 125.77 Mya to 0 Mya.

Early Cretaceous — about 1 of 211 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 0 of 211 occurrencesPaleocene — about 0 of 211 occurrencesEocene — about 49 of 211 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 3 of 211 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 30 of 211 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 1 of 211 occurrencesPleistocene — about 117 of 211 occurrences128–124 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences124–120 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences60–56 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences56–51 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences51–47 Mya — about 4 occurrences47–43 Mya — about 1 occurrence43–38 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences38–34 Mya — about 39 occurrences34–30 Mya — about 4 occurrences30–26 Mya — about 1 occurrence26–21 Mya — about 2 occurrences21–17 Mya — about 13 occurrences17–13 Mya — about 13 occurrences13–8.6 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences8.6–4.3 Mya — about 3 occurrences4.3–0 Mya — about 128 occurrences121.4 Mya11.7 ka128 Mya0 Mya

211 occurrences of Scolytinae on record, most of them in the Pleistocene. The Paleobiology Database records this as a living group. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.

When

211 occurrences

These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.

Found in

15 formations

Highbury Silts and Sands — 51.56°N, 0.06°WQuadra Sand — 49.29°N, 122.88°WTitusville Till — 41.62°N, 79.64°WFlorissant — 38.92°N, 105.28°WFlorissant — 38.93°N, 105.24°WGreen River — 41.56°N, 109.55°WGreen River — 39.46°N, 108.41°WKap København — 82.47°N, 23.66°WKap København — 82.45°N, 24.10°WOlympia beds — 47.66°N, 122.43°WNiveau du gypse d'Aix — 43.52°N, 5.45°ELondon Clay — 50.78°N, 0.70°WBuchanan Lake — 79.92°N, 88.97°WLa Toca — 19.55°N, 70.61°WScarborough — 43.70°N, 79.24°WOler — 69.50°N, 158.50°EFonseca — 20.16°S, 43.30°WMazantic Shale — 17.15°N, 92.70°W

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The named rock units Scolytinae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 138 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Scolytinae and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Scolytinae and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

3,287 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 72 sites for Scolytinae, and this reads all of them. Of that, one read hit the database's own return limit, so every count below is a floor rather than a total. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.

This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.

Entered from

42 references

Each of the 211 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. 30 further references are not listed. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content2

Picture of Scolytinae

Credit
nobody named on the record
Licence
Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Credit
tunosemi
Licence
CC Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike
Commercial use
the licence does not allow it

Smithsonian Open Access and MorphoSource were not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.

The description on this site

Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itCurculionidae through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Latreille 1804)