Abstract1 The European spruce bark beetle Ips typographus is a damaging pest on spruce in Europe.Beetle interactions with tree species originating outside the beetles' natural range are largely unknown and may be unpredictable, since trees without a co-evolutionary history with the beetle may lack effective defenses.2 We compared the terpenoid composition and breeding suitability to I. typographus of the historic host Norway spruce Picea abies with two evolutionary naïve spruces of North American origin that are extensively planted in NW Europe, Sitka spruce Picea sitchensis and Lutz spruce Picea glauca x lutzii.3 The bark of all three species had similar chemical composition and similar levels of total constitutive terpenoids, but Norway spruce had higher total induced terpenoid levels.4 Beetles tunneling in the three spruce species produced similar amounts of aggregation pheromone. Controlled breeding experiments showed that I. typographus could produce offspring in all three species, with similar offspring length and weight across species.However, total offspring production was much lower in Sitka and Lutz spruce.5 Overall, our results suggest that I. typographus will be able to colonize Sitka and Lutz spruce in European plantations and in native spruce forests in North America if introduced there.