Scolothrips Hinds

Mound, Laurence A., Tree, Desley J. & Goldarazena, Arturo, 2010, A new species of predatory Scolothrips (Thysanoptera, Thripidae) feeding on Raoiella mites (Tenuipalpidae) in Australia, Zootaxa 2620, pp. 63-68 : 64

Scolothrips Hinds

The genus Scolothrips currently includes 18 described species ( Mound, 2010), and these are well known as predators of mites on various agricultural crops ( Gilstrap, 1995). The common species, such as S. sexmaculatus Pergande , are white with small dark markings on the forewings, and are referred to as the 6- spotted thrips. In contrast, S. asura from eastern Asia and Australia is brightly coloured, with the head, pterothorax and abdominal segments VI–VIII brown in contrast to the white colour of the pronotum, legs and abdominal segments I–V and IX–X. Moreover, the brown areas have bright red internal pigments. Despite this, S. asura shares with the widespread white-bodied species the habit of mite predation, and also most details of the body structure. All members of the genus have six pairs of long and usually slightly barbed setae on the pronotum, also one pair of similar setae on the head arising between the ocelli, and a series of similar setae on the banded forewings. The purpose of this paper is to describe the new species of Scolothrips from Australia that has been found feeding on Raoiella mites. Although similar to S. asura in most character states, this species has a reduced cephalic chaetotaxy that is unique within the genus, and is also unusual within the family Thripidae .