Pseudodendrothrips bhatti

Alavi, Jalil, Minaei, Kambiz & Fekrat, Lida, 2014, The Iranian Dendrothripinae (Thysanoptera: Thripidae) with description of a new genus and species, Zootaxa 3860 (5), pp. 479-486 : 485

Pseudodendrothrips bhatti

The characters of female specimens collected in Iran closely conform to the published description of this species by Kudô (1984). However, differences in some characters are as follows: pronotum with 12 discal setae, with about 35 lines of sculpture at middle; fore wing with light brown band, paler at base and distally, clavus pale, shaded at apex; fore and mid tibiae not shaded. In this respect, Iranian specimens of P. bhattii are very similar to samples from Pakistan (see Akram et al. 2003). Mound (1999) indicated that P. bhattii cannot be distinguished from the Australian species, P. da rc i, but did not synonymise these two because of the difference in host plant records; P. bhattii has been reported only on Morus , whereas P. darci only on Ficus . Interestingly, we collected two specimens of P. bhattii , one from Ficus and another from Morus . Observation of this species on these two mentioned plants reinforces the suggestion by Mound (1999) of synonymy of this species with P. darci .

Material studied. IRAN, Khorasan-e Shomali province, Bojnourd, 1 female on Ficus carica , 15. vi.1993, J. Alavi. Kohnekand Research Station, 1 female on Morus alba . 14.ix.2011, J. Alavi.