Leptothrips Hood, 1909

Cavalleri, Adriano, Lindner, Mariana F. & Mendonça Jr, Milton de S., 2016, New Neotropical Haplothripini (Thysanoptera: Phlaeothripidae) with a key to Central and South American genera, Journal of Natural History 50, pp. 1389-1410 : 1405

Leptothrips Hood

Type species: Cryptothrips aspersus Hinds.

This New World genus currently includes 40 species and is possibly related to Haplothrips ( Mound and Marullo 1996) . Leptothrips species are all dark bodied with purple internal pigmentation, and bear an elongate, closely striate, triangular area on the metanotum. More than 10 species are reported from Central and South America, and a key to species was given by Johansen (1987). In that study five informal groups were recognised, but most are ill defined, and several characteristics used to differentiate the groups and species are highly variable inter- and intraspecifically. Moreover, there is a great possibility that several of them are synonyms of each other ( Mound and Marullo 1996). For instance, the distinguishing character states used to differentiate Leptothrips mali (Fitch) from L. malia ffi nis Johansen are possibly based on a misinterpretation of the numbers of sense cones on antennal segment IV, and these two taxa are likely to represent the same species ( Hoddle et al. 2012). Leptothrips species are generally considered obligate predators on small arthropods, but adults and larvae of the North American Leptothrips fasciculatus (Crawford) were recently found feeding on pollen and flower tissue of Eriogonum fasciculatum in the Mojave Desert ( Wiesenborn 2012).