saqarTvelos mecnierebaTa erovnuli akademiis moambe, t. 9, #1, 2015 BULLETIN OF THE GEORGIAN NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES, vol. 9, no. 1, 2015 © 2015 Bull. Georg. Natl. Acad. Sci. Zoology Nematodes Associated with Bark Beetle Ips Typographus in Borjomi Gorge Medea Burjanadze * , Manana Lortkipanidze ** , Archil Supatashvili * , Gia Kajaia ** * Department of Forest Protection, Agricultural University of Georgia, Tbilisi **Department of Entomopathogenes, Institute of Zoology, Ilia State University, Tbilisi (Presented by Academy Member Irakli Eliava) ABSTRACT. The spruce bark beetle Ips typographus L. (Coleoptera: Scolitidae) causes considerable damage in stands of oriental spruce trees ( Picea orientalis Link) and is very common throughout Borjomi gorge forests in Georgia. Investigation of bark beetle populations were carried out with focus on the natural occurrence of insect pathogenic and parasitic nematodes. During the survey carried out in 2009-2011 in different sites of forests of Borjomi gorge the following nematodes were isolated from Ips typographus, Contortylenchus typograpi, Contortylenchus sp., Bursatylenchus sp,. Parasitorhabditis sp. © 2015 Bull. Georg. Natl. Acad. Sci. Key words: Ips typographus, Contortylenchus typographi, Contortylenchus sp., Parasitorhabditis sp., Bursatylenchus s.p. Spruce bark beetle Ips typographus L. ( Coleoptera: Scolitidae ) causes considerable damage to stands of oriental spruce ( Picea orientalis Link) and is very common throughout Borjomi gorge forests of Georgia. The outbreaks of this pest insect often develop after cutting, wind or snow breaks, followed by warm and dry climatic conditions. In the last years numerous investigations were focused on the parasitic nematodes’ complex of bark beetle and their influence on insect popula- tion dynamics. The pathogen process a great po- tential biological control agents due to their ability to develop strong epizootics. That is the result of natural regulation of Ips typographus populations. A list of Ips typographus invasion by entomo- phatogenic nematodes with reference to the origi- nal discovery was given by different authors [1-4]. Information about Ips typogpaphus parasite nema- todes Rhabditidae and Tylenchidae is found in studies of Georgian scientists [5-6]. The goal of the present work was to investi- gate natural occurrence of specific nematodes as- sociated with Ips typographus and their role in the number regulation of this insect. Special attention was given to the entomopathogenic nematodes.