Type material.
Holotype (male) (NHMW) bears the following labels: 1.Pahlgam, 7000 ft, Lidar valley, Kashmir. 7.VI.1928 C.F.C. Beeson. (on reverse side t.No193) // 2. Male sign // 3. under bark Ulmus wallichiana // 96.
Allotype (female) (NHMW) bears the following labels: Pahlgam, 7000 ft, Lidar valley, Kashmir. 7.VI.1928 C.F.C. Beeson // Female sign // under bark Ulmus wallichiana // Scolytus scolytus Geoff. [Sic!] det. K.E.Schedl 1953 // n.sp. det. C. Holzschuh.
Description.
Holotype. Male. Body length 4.6 mm, 2.1 times as long as wide
Head black, faintly shining. Frons flat, longitudinally aciculate, its surface with fine pale hair-like setae; lateral parts of frons near eyes covered by denser and longer hair-like setae. Vertex deeply punctured. Antennae brown, antennal club nearly elliptical, its surface with short golden hair-like setae.
Pronotum reddish-brown, nearly as long as wide, wider than its length. Sides of pronotum parallel for most of their length; gently rounded towards pronotal apex; constriction in apical portion of pronotum only weakly developed. Surface punctured, with punctures larger in frontal portion than in center of pronotal disk. Anterolateral angles of pronotum bear sparse long light hair-like setae.
Elytra reddish-brown, faintly shining, as wide as pronotal base and 1.5 times as long as pronotum. Elytral base slightly elevated; scutellum triangular; impression near scutellum only poorly developed. Striae slightly impressed, strial punctures circular, closely placed; interstriae flat with smaller punctures than in striae and less closely placed. Subapical elytral constriction distinct. Prior to apex (in subapical constricted part ) elytra with faint impression with irregularly set punctures. Pale sparse erect hair-like setae only visible near elytral apex.
Abdomen reddish-brown, dull. First and second sternites darker than third, fourth and fifth sternites. All sternites with densely set round punctures. Posterior margins of third and fourth sternites with minute median tubercles. Lateral sides of fifth sternite clearly thickened on posterior margin and with carinate apex. Two strong tubercles developed on fifth sternite, their apices with brushes of densely set golden hair-like setae, the brushes not confluent at glabrous apical margin of abdomen.
Legs reddish-brown, covered by golden hair-like setae.
Female. Similar to male but can be distinguished by the larger size (4.9 mm), more convex frons and by less strongly developed "callous-like elevations" at 5-th sternite without hair-like brushes of setae.
Diagnosis.
The new species is more closely related to Scolytus dahuricus (Fig. 2) than to any other Indian Scolytus species. From Scolytus dahuricus it is distinguished by the broader body , by the flat elytral interstriae without any transverse rugosities or furrows. In the new species, the hair-like setae at the lateral parts of the frons are shorter and sparser. The clearest difference from Scolytus dahuricus is seen in the form of the tubercles on the fifth abdominal segment and in their vestiture. In Scolytus dahuricus long hair-like setae, forming tufts attain the apical margin of the fifth sternite where the two tufts are confluent, and intergrade. The tubercles of the fifth sternite in Scolytus dahuricus are spatuliform, blade-like whereas in Scolytus stepheni these tubercles have the form of truncated cones. The tubercles in Scolytus stepheni are set closer to the median line of the fifth sternite, whereas in Scolytus dahuricus the tubercles occupy the whole space from center to lateral sides of sternite. The distance from the tubercle apices to the posterior margin of the fifth sternite is significantly greater in Scolytus stepheni compared to the relevant distance in Scolytus dahuricus .
Etymology.
Professor Stephen Lane Wood worked extensively on collections of Scolytinae preserved in Indian museums, and described a number of new Scolytinae species from India. In this paper we describe one more new bark-beetle species from India kept in the Natural History Museum in Vienna (NHMW) and dedicate this species to the late Professor Stephen Lane Wood.
