Caliothrips fasciatus (Pergande)

Heliothrips fasciata Pergande, 1895: 391

Widespread in western and southern USA, the record of this species from China, published by Steinweden & Moulton (1930), is based on a single female. This has been studied on loan from the California Academy of Sciences, and has the following data on the slide label: “ CHINA, Foochow, Citrus, 7.i.27, C.R.Kellogg”. The specimen has the head and tergal sculpture that are typical of fasciatus (Figs 4, 7), but the locality record is less certain. C. fasciatus is abundant and flies readily in California, and the specimen possibly arrived inadvertently during slide preparation in California, and is thus mislabelled. A similar situation has been reported previously (Marullo & Mound, 1994); Orothrips raoi Moulton was described from a single female stated to be from India, but this was subsequently recognised as the common Californian species O. yosemitii Moulton. For the present, there remains no conclusive evidence that the North American bean thrips has occurred in, let alone is established in, China.