Caliothrips Daniel

Mound, Laurence A., Zhang, Hongrui & Bei, Yawei, 2011, Caliothrips tongi sp. n. (Thysanoptera, Thripidae) from China, and a dubious record of North American Bean Thrips, Zootaxa 2736, pp. 57-62 : 57-58

Caliothrips Daniel

Caliothrips Daniel, 1904: 296 . Type species C. woodworthi Daniel , now considered a synonym of Heliothrips fasciatus Pergande.

Wilson (1975) provided a key to the 18 species of this genus that were recognised at that time, and Nakahara (1991) subsequently described two further species, from Florida and Georgia, with a key to the 10 species recorded from the Nearctic Region. A total of 12 members of the genus are from the New World (this includes C. braziliensis from South America as a synonym of the North American C. phaseoli ), with five species from Africa and three from Asia. To this total of 20 species a further two species from Asia should now be added. One is the new species, C. tongi , described below from eastern China. The other is Caliothrips pallidizonata (Kudo) comb.n., described as the second species in the genus Oneilliella Wilson and collected from Selaginella in Peninsular Malaysia ( Kudo, 1995). The original description of this species is well illustrated, showing the reticulations of the body sculpture with numerous internal markings as is typical among species of Caliothrips , and the head with gently rounded cheeks. In contrast, the only known species of Oneilliella comes from Trinidad, lacks markings within the reticulations ( Mound & Marullo, 1996), and has the head sharply angulate behind the eyes ( Wilson, 1975). C. pallidizonata has longitudinal tergal sculpture rather similar to that of C. tongi (cf. Fig. 6), but the vertex lacks the strong transverse line, and the fore wing is sharply pale at the apex.

Members of the genus Caliothrips are recognisable, not only by the form of the sculpture on the head and pronotum with prominent markings within the reticulations, but also by the presence of a coiled apodeme within each hind coxa. This apodeme is presumably one of the various adaptations amongst thrips adults that are associated with the ability to jump suddenly. Bhatti (2006), in drawing attention to this structure, placed Caliothrips in a new monobasic family, although the phylogenetic significance of this remains unclear. At present, Caliothrips is retained in the subfamily Panchaetothripinae of the Thripidae .

The host range within the genus Caliothrips is extensive. Some species breed only on certain grasses, including the Asian/Australian species, C. striatopterus , and its Indian equivalent, C. luckmanni . This host association is also found in three New World species, C. cinctipennis , C. insularis and C. punctipennis ( Wilson, 1975; Nakahara, 1991). In contrast, some species seem to be associated particularly with the leaves of Fabaceae , including C. fasciatus , C. multistriatus and C. phaseoli in the New World, as well as the Oriental species C. indicus . However, some of these can probably breed on a wider range of hosts, and C. indicus and C. sudanensis are both recorded as pests on cotton leaves. Curiously, C. fasciatus was once considered a pest of pears and walnuts in California, USA ( Bailey, 1933; 1937; 1938), but the pest status of this species has waned to non-significance ( Hoddle et al. 2006). A few species are widely distributed, including C phaseoli from North America to Brazil (= C. braziliensis ), also C. graminicola that extends from Sudan through India to Australia. Other members of the genus, judging from the records in Wilson (1975), have a more restricted distribution, although Bhatti (2006) records the North American species, C. punctipennis , as established in India, at New Delhi.