Astrothrips globiceps (Karny)

Li, Yajin, Mound, Laurence A., Xie, Yanlan & Zhang, Hongrui, 2021, Species of Astrothrips from China, with one new species and a list of plant associations (Thysanoptera, Panchaetothripinae), Zootaxa 4920 (2), pp. 267-277 : 276

Astrothrips globiceps (Karny)

( Figs 5, 6 , 10 )

Described from the island of New Britain, Papua New Guinea ( Karny 1913), this species is recorded widely across southeast Asia from India to Japan and the Philippines ( Rachana et al. 2019). However, the identity of globiceps has been difficult to establish, due to confusion created by Wilson (1975) in placing the species twice in his key to species, but without comment or explanation in his main text. It was keyed as either having, or as not having, a submarginal ridge near the pronotal posterior margin. Photographs of the pronotum of Karny’s original specimen have been studied, and globiceps is now diagnosed as having a small transverse ridge that extends across only the median third of the pronotal posterior submargin ( Rachana et al. 2019). These authors also referred to a male from Timor Leste as having U-shaped sternal pore plates ( Fig. 5 ), and this condition is here confirmed by the specimens listed below that newly record globiceps from Southern China in Hainan and Yunnan Provinces.

Material studied. CHINA, Hainan Province, Haikou City, Jinniuling , 1 female from Syngonium podophyllum , 3.x.2018 (Xie Yan-lan); Haikou Airport , 7 females from Ipomoea batatas , 24.xii.2014 (Zhang Hong-rui), 3 females, 1 male from Ficus sp., 1 female, 3 males from Acalypha australis , 3.x.2018 (Xie Yan-lan); Xinglong County, Tropical Flower Garden, 3 females, 5 males from Clerodendrum cyrtophyllum , 6 females from Canavalia gladiata , 4 females from grasses, 5.x.2018 (Xie Yan-lan) ( YNAU) . Haikou Airport, 1 male from Ipomoea batatas , 24.xii.2014 ( Zhang Hong-rui ); Danzhou, 1 female, 1 male from Alternanthera sessilis , 24.vi.2018 (Xie Yan-lan) ( ANIC) . Yunnan Province, Mengla County, Xishuangbanna tropical botanical garden, 3 females from Ophiopogon japonicas , and 1 male from Ipomoea batatas , 11.iii.2017 (Zhang Hong-rui) ( YNAU) . Xishuangbanna tropical botanical garden, 1 female from Ophiopogon japonicus , 11.iii.2017; 1 male from Ficus altissima , 24.x.2017; 1 female from Cordyline fruticosa , 1.viii.2018. (Li Ya-jin) ( ANIC) .

Figures

FIGURES 1–8. Astrothrips species. 1–4 A. glanduculus sp.n (1) Female; (2) Male; (3) Abdominal tergites VII–X of male; (4) Abdominal sternites V–VII of male. 5–6 globiceps. (5) Abdominal sternites IV–VII of male; (6) Abdominal tergites VIII–X of female; (7) Abdominal tergites VIII–X of chisinliaoensis; (8) Abdominal tergites VI–VII of glanduculus.

FIGURES 9–16. Head and pronotum of Astrothrips species. (9) aucubae; (10) globiceps; (11) chisinliaoensis (12) strasseni; (13) tumiceps; (14) Pronotum of glanduculus (variant); (15) glanduculus; (16) asiaticus.