Strepterothrips tuberculatus (Girault)

(Figs 26, 28, 41)

Rhopalothrips tuberculatus Girault, 1929: 2 .

A full description of this species, indicating its wide distribution across Australia, was provided by Mound and Ward (1971). Males vary greatly in body size, head shape, and length of the claw-like fore tarsal hamus, and fully winged females occur in low numbers. Moreover, antennal segment III varies in colour, both within and between populations, from almost uniformly dark brown (Fig. 26) to pale brownish-yellow. This thrips is common on dead, often dry, twigs in eastern Australia, and has been studied from Kangaroo Island, South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria, New South Wales (including ACT and Lord Howe Island), Central and southeastern Queensland, and the southwest of Western Australia. The species is established in New Zealand, but despite extensive collecting activity, only one female, a macroptera, has been taken from the northern, tropical, areas of Australia. On Norfolk Island a similar species, verruculus, is common but this differs from tuberculatus in details of sculpture and thoracic chaetotaxy (Figs 39–41).