Taeniothrips Amyot & Serville, 1843

Mound, L. A., Azidah, A. A. & Ng, Y. F., 2012, Key to the non-fossil species of the genus Taeniothrips (Thysanoptera, Thripidae), Zootaxa 3414 (1), pp. 33-42 : 33-34

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, 1907: 45.

Taeniothrips (Fetothrips) Bhatti, 1995: 92 . Type species Taeniothrips tigris Bhatti.

Species in this genus share with those in the genus Thrips the character state of lacking a pair of setae immediately in front of the first ocellus (ocellar setae pair I) ( Figs 4, 5 ). However, in contrast to the species of Thrips genus, they do not have ctenidia on the abdominal tergites ( Fig. 14 ). Both sexes in Taeniothrips have a long and regular comb of microtrichia on the posterior margin of tergite VIII ( Fig. 14 ), and ocellar setae pair III arise within the ocellar triangle. The first vein of the fore wing has a long gap in the setal row, and in females sternite VII has both median pairs of setae (S1 and S2) arising in front of the margin (except arbuti and inconsequens where S2 are almost marginal). The head is relatively elongate, and the median pair of metanotal setae usually arises close to the anterior margin ( Figs 2–6 ). In contrast to several Thripinae taxa that are similar in general appearance, the first antennal segment of Taeniothrips species does not bear a pair of dorso-apical setae.

There are now 45 species listed in Taeniothrips , of which 21 are based only on fossils. Table 1 lists the nonfossil species, but a full synonymic list including the fossil species is available on the web ( Mound 2012). Of the remaining 24 species, four are European in origin, one is from western North America, and the rest are from Asia. Of these Asian species, four are either clearly not members of this genus or remain unrecognisable (see section 7 below). Identification problems within the genus have remained particularly severe with the Asian species, primarily because of the lack of targeted field sampling and biological studies in this region. There is little information available on variation within and between populations in tropical Asia, and even some temperate zone species seem likely to have extensive distributions across the northern hemisphere.

Some members of this genus are associated with flowers. This includes the type species, picipes , that is common across Europe in the flowers of several small herbs, and oreophilus that seems to occupy a similar niche in Japan. A closely related species, zurstrasseni , was described from the flowers of various herbaceous plants growing in damp places in Poland, and the oriental species eucharii is associated with the flowers and leaves of various Liliaceae ( Mound & Tree 2009) . In contrast, the Holarctic species inconsequens appears to be associated commonly with young leaves, and in north-east America can cause severe damage to the emerging young leaves of sugar maple trees ( Teulon et al., 1994). In Japan, inconsequens occurs very early in spring when few other thrips are around, and at this time many individuals are found not only on young leaves but also in leaf-buds, flower-buds and flowers of several plant families (teste M.Masumoto in litt. 2012). Very little is known of the biology of most of the other species in this genus.

Figures

FIGURES 2–9. Taeniothrips species. (2) picipes; (3) damansarae; (4) montivagus; (5) fallax; (6) major; (7) damansarae male sternites; (8–9) damansarae ocellar setae pair III – 8, paratype female; 9, holotype female.

FIGURES 10–16. Taeniothrips species. Male tergites VIII–IX 10–13: (10) orionis; (11) eucharii; (12) fallax; (13) damansarae. (14) damansarae female tergites VI–X. Female tergite V 15–16: (15) eucharii, (16) major.