Taeniothrips Amyot & Serville

Mirab-Balou, Majid, Mound, Laurence A. & Tong, Xiao-Li, 2015, New combinations and a new generic synonym in the genus Taeniothrips (Thysanoptera: Thripidae), Zootaxa 3964 (3), pp. 371-378 : 371-372

Taeniothrips Amyot & Serville

Taeniothrips Amyot & Serville, 1843: 644 . Type species Thrips primulae Haliday , a junior synonym of Thrips picipes Zetterstedt , by subsequent designation of Karny.

Javathrips Bhatti, 1978: 176 . Type species Taeniothrips lagoenifer Priesner , by original designation from three species. syn.n.

In addition to the type species, Bhatti placed into his new genus Taeniothrips cyrtandrae Priesner , and Physopus mischocarpi Zimmermann , despite the latter being known only from the original description. Three further species were added subsequently, Javathrips musae Zhang & Tong from China, J. ciliaris Reyes and J. variegatus Reyes from the Philippines. The genus was distinguished from Taeniothrips by Bhatti on the differences in five carefully defined characters. However, recent study of further species of Taeniothrips from Southeast Asia has indicated that each of these differences can be interpreted as part of a continuum in body sizes and shapes. The five differences given by Bhatti are quoted below, with comments on variation observed among related species in support of the above newly proposed synonymy.

1. “shape of antennal segment IV with narrow parallel sided distal fourth, or third”. Certainly, lagoenifer has the apex of antennal segment IV unusually elongate, but that is less obvious in cyrtandrae . Similar but less extreme elongation of the apex of segment IV occurs in Taeniothrips eucharii , where the extent of the elongation is closely related to body size ( Figs 3, 4 ). A less obvious apical neck occurs on large females of other species including T. major , T. orionis and T. picipes . Comparable elongation of antennal segment IV occurs among different species of Craspedothrips (see Figures 12 –14 & 20 in Mound et al. 2012), also other thripine taxa such as Trichromothrips species, where it is related to antennal elongation.

2. “long sense cone on each of segments III and IV being subequal to or much longer than its segment”. The illustrations given by Bhatti (1978) indicate that, just as the apical neck of segment IV in lagoenifer is much longer than that of cyrtandrae , so is the forked sense cone on this segment much longer. Among other Thripinae the length of the antennal sense cones appears to be correlated, to some extent, with the length of the segments themselves. Typical Taeniothrips species have relatively short antennae and sense cones, but in T. damansarae the sense cone on segment III is subequal to the length of the segment ( Fig. 5 ).

3. “Postocular and pronotal posteroangular setae not finely pointed, but fringed at apex or at most abruptly pointed”. Again, this seems to be a matter of degree, because some specimens of T. eucharii and some specimens of T. inconsequens have the postocular setae blunt at the apex, and in T. damansarae the apices of these setae are clearly fringed.

4. “pronotum with 2 pairs of posteromarginal setae inner to the major angulars”. The contrasting character state of three pairs of posteromarginal setae is not constant among the species of Taeniothrips . Available specimens of T. major from Pakistan commonly lack one of the minor setae, producing an asymmetric condition; inconsequens and damansarae usually have only two pairs of posteromarginal setae; and as described below, musae has two or three pairs.

5. “marked sexual dimorphism in the number of setae on antennal segments IV–VII” [presumably an error for VI]. This statement was based only on one species, cyrtandrae , because no males were known of the type species. Elongation of antennal segment VI occurs in some other species of Taeniothrips , including damansarae , and as a result this segment bears more setae. Moreover, sexual dimorphism in antennae is occurs widely amongst Thripinae , for example among the species of Mycterothrips where it was used at one time to distinguish two or more genera ( Masumoto & Okajima 2006).

6. In addition to the above five characters, Bhatti (1978) also referred to: “The anterior head production, well marked in Javathrips , is not marked in Taeniothrips .” Certainly, the apparent head length is variable among the species currently placed in Taeniothrips . The head of the type species, picipes , and also of inconsequens , projects weakly in front of the eyes, but this is not true of damansarae . As a result, the condition found in lagoenifer is here interpreted as one extreme in a range of variation (see Figs 1, 2, 7 ).

Figures

FIGURES 1 – 8. (1) Taeniothrips ciliaris, head and thorax; (2) Taeniothrips variegatus, head and thorax; (3 – 4) Taeniothrips euchariae, antennal segments of small and large female; (5) Taeniothrips damansarae, antenna; (6 – 8) Taeniothrips musae: (6) Antenna, (7) Female, holotype, (8) Abdominal sternites of male, showing pore plates.

FIGURES 9 – 12. Taeniothrips musae. (9) Ferna; (10) Metascutum; (11) Abdominal sternite VII; (12) Fore wing.