Euphysothrips minozzii Bagnall

Mound, Laurence A., 2018, Euphysothrips: an Old World genus of Thripidae (Thysanoptera) associated with rust fungi (Pucciniales), Zootaxa 4532 (3), pp. 447-450 : 449

Euphysothrips minozzii Bagnall

Euphysothrips minozzii Bagnall, 1926: 646

Anaphothrips fungivora Ramakrishna, 1928: 268 . Synonymised by Bhatti, 1972: 149

Bagnall collected this species from the flowers of Clematis vitalba [ Ranunculaceae ] at Perpignan, southern France. Over subsequent years the species was discovered widely, and zur Strassen (2003) listed it from Austria, Turkey, Canary Islands, Egypt (Sinai), Iran, Yemen, India, Cape Verde Islands, South Africa, and Moçambique. Moreover, Tyagi and Kumar (2016) recorded this thrips from southern India in Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu. Specimens from many of these localities have been studied, including Bagnall’s original “ Type ” from southern France ( Mound 1968). Despite all these distribution records, neither Priesner (1965: 292–294), Bhatti (1972), nor zur Strassen (2003: 192) provided any precise host association, merely recording that specimens were primarily taken from Poaceae and Juncaceae . In contrast, as noted above, both Ramakrishna (1928) and Ananthakrishnan (1969: 5) referred to this thrips as feeding on “rust” on wheat plants. However, further observations are needed to confirm this host association. The possibility that minozzii may be dependent on rust fungi associated with Poaceae , including wheat rust, deserves closer investigation.