Disasters in spruce forests caused by climatic conditions (e.g. windstorms, increased temperatures, drought) or inappropriate forest management favour the outbreak of the European spruce bark beetle Ips typographus, which is the main pest affecting Norway spruce forests. The physical abilities of the pest itself enable it to disperse even across geographical barriers, establish new subpop− ulations, hybridise with local subpopulations, and increase its genetic diversity and viability. Genetic analysis, using six microsatellite markers, was carried out on 16 subpopulations of the bark beetle collected from an area of approximately 1100 km² within three mountains. The microsatel− lite markers used yielded parameters such as number of alleles, number of effective alleles, observed heterozygosity, and polymorphic information content for the evaluation of genetic variation in bark beetle subpopulations. Despite the considerable genetic variation observed among the subpopulations of bark beetles, no genetic differentiation was detected. The results indicate that neither the distance of approximately 55 km between the most distant sampling sites, nor the elevations of about 1000 m between the ridges and valleys between these sites, limit beetle movement and bark beetle gene flow.

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