Amphibolothrips Buffa, 1909

Mound, Laurence A., Lima, Élison Fabrício B. & O’Donnell, Cheryle A., 2023, What is a genus-interpreting structural diversity among species of urothripine Phlaeothripinae (Thysanoptera), Zootaxa 5319 (1), pp. 91-102 : 97-98

Amphibolothrips Buffa

Amphibolothrips Buffa, 1909: 193 . Type species Amphibolothrips grassii Buffa.

Bebelothrips Buffa, 1909: 195 . Type species Bebelothrips latus Buffa. Syn.n

Conocephalothrips Bianchi, 1946: 499 . Type species Conocephalothrips tricolor Bianchi. Syn.n.

Buffa (1909) erected this genus for a single species, grassii , based on a single specimen from Lake Albano near Rome, in Italy. This species is currently recorded also from southern France and Spain. In the same paper, Buffa also erected Bebelothrips for a single species, latus , based on three females from Isola del Giglio, an island between the west coast of Italy and Corsica. The original specimens of both species are currently not known to exist, however Trachythrips flavicinctus Bournier from southern France is now considered a synonym of latus . The genus Bebelothrips has remained distinguished from Amphibolothrips based only on the differing number of antennal segments (Priesner 1964). However, despite the larger number of antennal segments, Stannard (1970) transferred Trachythrips marginatus Bournier from southern France to Amphibolothrips , and Mound (1972) similarly transferred Bebelothrips knechteli Priesner , a species that is recorded only from Romania and the Canary Islands.

Bianchi (1946) erected Conocephalothrips for the single species tricolor , and this remains known only from two females collected on Oahu. The new genus was compared only to Urothrips and no mention was made of Amphibolothrips although the head of grassii , the only species of the genus known at that time, is similarly produced forward over the antennal bases ( Figs 21–25 ). The antennal segments of grassii are more extensively fused than in tricolor , in which antennal segments III–V are distinct but broadly joined ( Figs 1–3 ). The antennae of Bebelothrips latus , and also of the other two species now placed in Amphibolothrips , are intermediate in structure between grassii and tricolor . The body of the holotype of tricolor has too much pigment for basantra to be visible, but the species is unusual in having the dorsal pair of anal setae flattened and scale-like, and less than 10 microns long.

It is not possible to know if the species tricolor is a natural inhabitant of the Hawaiian Islands, or if it has been introduced to Oahu from some other part of the world. In the northern part of North America almost nothing is known of the leaf litter thrips fauna, but the other four species here recognised in Amphibolothrips are all from the southern parts of Europe. However, despite the interpretation adopted here of the available data, there is a further problem in distinguishing Amphibolothrips from Urothrips . The distinction between these indicated above in the key to genera fails with just one of the 12 described species of Urothrips . The fore tarsal hamus of calvus from eastern China appears to be absent, although it is also very small in lancangensis from southern China.

The new synonymy of Bebelothrips and Conocephalothrips with Amphibolothrips results in two new combinations as listed in Table 1.

Figures

FIGURES 21–32. Heads of urothripines.(21) Amphibolothrips grassii; (22) A. knechteli; (23) A. marginatus; (24) Bebelothrips flavicinctus; (25) Conocephalothrips tricolor; (26) Bradythrips hesperus; (27) Baenothrips cuneatus; (28) B. murphyi; (29) S. erythrinus; (30) B. guatemalensis; (31) B. moundi; (32) Stephanothrips uvarovi [paratype].

FIGURES 1–20. Antennae of urothripines. (1) Amphibolothrips grassii; (2) A. knechteli; (3) Conocephalothrips tricolor; (4) Bebelothrips flavicinctus; (5) Baenothrips guatemalensis; (6) B. moundi; (7) B. chiliensis; (8) B. cuneatus; (9) Bradythrips hesperus; (10) Stephanothrips buffai; (11) S. uvarovi (paratype); (12) S. uvarovi (Brazil); (13) S. howei; (14) S. barretti; (15) S, broomei; (16–17) S. erythrinus (paratypes); (18) S. austrinus; (19) S. adnatus; (20) Antennae of five Asian Stephanothrips species in Okajima (1989).