(n) small beetle that likes to bore through the bark of spruce trees and eat the cambium which eventually kills the tree, Syn. Dendroctonus rufipennis, Example:the spruce bark beetle is the major tree-killing insect pest of Alaska spruce forests
(Zool.) A small beetle of many species (family Scolytidæ), which in the larval state bores under or in the bark of trees, often doing great damage. [ 1913 Webster ]