Franklinothrips strasseni, Mound, Laurence A. & Reynaud, Philippe, 2005

Mound, Laurence A. & Reynaud, Philippe, 2005, Franklinothrips; a pantropical Thysanoptera genus of ant­mimicking obligate predators (Aeolothripidae), Zootaxa 864, pp. 1-16 : 12-13

Franklinothrips strasseni sp.n.

Holotype female: Nepal, Kathmandu, 12.iv.1976 (Baroni­Urbani & Wittmer) [Naturhistorisches Museum Basel]

Female: Body and legs dark brown, tarsi yellow ( Fig. 12 ); antennal segments III–IV clear yellow, remaining antennal segments brown; forewing pale at base anterior to second vein but with posterior area and jugal lobe shaded, a transverse dark band extends to first cross vein then the wing is dark posterior to second vein, extreme apex dark including apical ring vein (Fig. 23).

Head wider than long, cheeks rounded and recessed into prothorax, prolonged in front of eyes; diameter of posterior ocelli twice that of fore ocellus; vertex with 4 pairs of postocular setae, median pair longer than posterior ocellus; maxillary palp II 3.5 times longer than III. Antennae long (Fig. 31), segments III and IV with sensorium extending almost full length of segment. Pronotal posterior margin with stout transverse apodeme. Forewing clavus with 5 marginal setae. Abdominal tergite I narrow; tergal median setae small and wide apart; tergites VIII and IX subequal in length.

Measurements (holotype Ψ in microns)

Body length 3010. Head, length 260; width 330. Pronotum, length 250; width 350. Forewing, length 1500; maximum distal width 150. Antennal segments I–IX length: 50, 55, 480, 330, 100, 70, 50, 30, 15.

Comments: The head and pronotum of this species are similar to that of F. suzukii ( Fig. 19 ), but antennal segment III is particularly elongate (Fig. 31), being almost one third as long as the forewing. The abdomen is uniformly dark ( Fig. 12 ), but is more constricted basally than in F. basseti and F. lineatus . As a result, the body form is intermediate between these more generalised species that are similar to Corynothripoides , and the more extreme ant mimicking species.

Figures

FIGURES 12 – 20. Franklinothrips species: (12) F. strasseni, female holotype; (13) F. tenuicornis, female from Sta Catarina, Brazil; (14) F. tenuicornis, male from Sta Catarina, Brazil; (15) F. variegatus, female; (16) F. vespiformis, female from Sao Paulo, Brazil; (17) F. vespiformis, male from Sedona, Arizona, USA; (18) F. brunneicornis, female head; (19) F. s u z u k i i, female holotype; (20) F. brunneicornis, male head.