Projectothrips Moulton

Mound, Laurence A. & Tree, Desley J., 2011, New records and four new species of Australian Thripidae (Thysanoptera) emphasise faunal relationships between northern Australia and Asia, Zootaxa 2764, pp. 35-48 : 38

Projectothrips Moulton

Projectothrips Moulton, 1929: 95 . Type-species Projectothrips pruthi Moulton

Species of this genus are highly distinctive, because of the elongate, slender, eighth antennal segment that is about nine times as long as wide ( Fig. 14 ). Together with its generic synonym Docidothrips Priesner, the genus currently includes eight species. Each of these is known only from the Oriental and Pacific Regions, and they all live in the flowering spikes of Pandanus species (screw pines). Collecting thrips from these flowers can be particularly difficult, and thus several of the species are known from few specimens with little information on intraspecific variation. The new species described below has been taken on two different species of Pandanus at two widely separated localities.

Figures

FIGURES 8 – 14. Oxythrips and Projectothrips. O. australopalmae male 8 – 9: (8) terga VIII – IX; (9) sterna VI-VIII. P. beverlyae 10 – 14: (10) head & thorax; (11) female; (12) male sterna V – VIII; (13) female terga VI – X; (14) antenna.