Occurrence of Microsporidium sp. and other pathogens in Ips amitinus (Coleoptera: Curculionidae).

A new microsporidium is reported from the small spruce bark beetle, Ips amitinus: Microsporidium sp. with uninucleate oval spores measuring 3.5 × 2.5 µm; infecting cells of the midgut epithelium, midgut muscles, the fat body, the Malpighian tubules, and the gonads of adult beetles collected in Austria. Seven other pathogens were found in beetles collected from Austria, the Czech Republic, and Finland. Six of them were already known from I. amitinus. Nosema cf. typographi is recorded for the first time in the overwintering generation of I. amitinus from the Czech Republic.