Trichromothrips priesneri (Bhatti)

Mound, Laurence A., Matsunaga, Janis N., Bushe, Brian, Hoddle, Mark S. & Wells, Alice, 2017, Adventive Thysanoptera Species in the Hawaiian Islands: New Records and Putative Host Associations, Proceedings of the Hawaiian Entomological Society 49, pp. 17-28 : 21

Trichromothrips priesneri (Bhatti) .

Two females of this species, previously known only from India, were collected on Maui, on the wetlands behind Waihee Beach amongst dodder and Cyperaceae (deposited in ANIC). These females were identified from the description given by Bhatti (2000) in a key to the species of the genus. These specimens agree well with that description, except that they have the basal half of antennal segments III and IV more extensively yellow. T. priesneri is remarkable for its color, even in the field. The abdomen and forewings are dark brown, but the pterothorax is white, the pronotum is white with brown lateral margins ( Fig. 4 ), and the head is white medially but brown at the anterior and posterolaterally. The only other member of this genus with a similar dark brown abdomen is T. elegans from Japan, but that has a uniformly dark head and a smaller pale area medially on the pronotum (Masumoto and Okajima 2005).

Figures

Figures 1–5. Thrips new to Hawaii. 1. Leaf-damage on Colocasia esculenta by Biltothrips minutus (photo: S. Chun). 2. Head of Indusiothrips seshadrii. 3. Head and pronotum of Monilothrips kempi. 4. Head and thorax of Trichromothrips priesneri. 5. Forewing of Coremothrips pallidus.