Species Diagnosis and Phylogeny of the Ips grandicollis Group (Coleoptera: Scolytidae) Using Random Amplified Polymorphic DNA

Bark beetle species of the Ips grandicollis group— I. hoppingi, I. confusus, I. paraconfusus, I. montanus, I. grandicollis, I. cribricollis, and I. lecontei —are morphologically similar. Some of these species are sympatric and identification is problematic. We used therandom amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) technique, which yielded a diagnostic DNA banding pattern for each species. Blot hybridizations confirmed DNA sequence homologyamong comigrating DNA fragments. One most parsimonious phylogeny was reconstructed using bands as characters. The phylogeny was supported by bootstrap values and congruent with a published phylogeny reconstructed from allozyme frequencies.