I asked for an autograph

I'd not come across any bark beetles before this year, but I have now encountered a handful of species. I beat my first, Tomicus piniperda, from Scot's Pine at the start of the year and then several others have all been attracted to light (plus one species to recently cut wood) during the spring and summer.

I tentatively identified another new one today from a tube of samples from a moth trapping visit to Chippenham Fen back in May.  I find the best method with this group is to picture match to narrow it to genus before hitting the keys for specifics.

Having struggled with the keys to genus, a couple of quick comparisons to the images online got me to Dryocoetes. There are only 3 species found in the UK with a fourth having been recorded as a non-established introduction. 

The first couplet in the key is how deep the sutural striae are. Basically the bits either side of where the elytra join. This was hardly deepened at all leading to this being D. autographus. Looking at images of the species with deeper striae I'm pretty confident I'm correct but as I keep discovering with beetles it's often two steps forward and one step back!!

The post title link comes from a certain Mr D Bowie.