Rhaebothrips fuscus, Moulton, 1942

Moulton, Dudley, 1942, Thysanoptera: Thrips of Guam, Insects of Guam I, Bernice P. Bishop Museum Bulletin, pp. 7-16 : 15-16

22. Rhaebothrips fuscus , new species.

Female holotype: color blackish brown with joints of legs and tarsi lighter, fore tibiae lighter especially at ends and fore tarsi almost yellow; antenna! segments 1 and 6 to 8 blackish brown, 2 lighter in outer half, 3 and basal two thirds of 4 clear yellow, distal part of 4 clouded with brown, 5 yellowish in basal half, blackish brown in distal half. Wings washed with brown, lighter in basal third; median streak darkened in middle third; prominent spines brownish yellow. Head 1.6 longer than wide, cheeks straight, gently narrowed in basal fourth and with a thickened ring at posterior margin; postocular spines about one fourth longer than eyes; mouth cone broadly rounded, reaching one half across prosternum; antenna 1.8 longer than head, segment 3 longest, distinctly longer than 4 and with two sense cones. Prothorax with concave fore margin, all normal spines present, those at posterior angles longest. The median thickening extends from anterior margin to near posterior margin, being almost complete. Fore legs only slightly enlarged, fore femora normal, not bent as in the male; fore tarsus with a claw-shaped tooth near end on the inside much as in K.arnyothrips . Median streal<of forewings conspicuous only in middle third. Sixteen double fringe hairs on forewings. Tube 0.8 as long as head, three times longer than width at base.

Total body length (abdomen distended) 3.04 mm.; head length 0.352 mm., \Vidth behind eyes 0.22 mm.; prothorax length 0.176 mm., width without coxae 0.323 mm.; tube length 0.308 mm., width at base 0.102 mm.; length of spines, postoculars 0.116 microns; those on anterior margin and angles 40 microns, midlaterals 73 microns, outer on posterior angles 88 microns, on ninth abdominal segment 260 microns, at tip of tube 176 microns. Antenna! segments length (width): II, 66 (36); III, 123 (34); IV, 113 (33); V, 93 (33); VI, 80 (30); VII, 56 (26); VIII, 26, total, 632 microns.

Male allotype, similar in size and color to female but darker, almost black. Wings wanting. Fore legs greatly enlarged, fore femora with a strongly curved, almost angular inner margin and outer margin broadly rounded.

Piti , May 1, on grass, holotype female (macropterous), allotype male (apterous), two females, one male (5487); Sasa, type locality, June 26, from unknown host plant, one female, two males (5493); all collected by Usinger . Also listed as type material: Fiji Islands, Taviuni, two males (3406), Viti Levu, two males (3414); Wayaya, one female, two males (3476); Darnley Island , Torres Straits, one male, one female (3416); all collected by A. M. Lea.

The species fuscus is larger than lativentris Karny but smaller than major Bagnall . In lativentris, the postocular spines are shorter than the eyes, the mouth cone reaches nearly to the posterior margin of the prosternum and the third and fourth segments of antenna are about equal in length, being 100 microns long. R. major Bagnall , a larger species, has darker wings and twentyeight double fringe hairs on forewings.