Leptothrips papago Hood, 1939

Mound, Laurence & O’Donnell, Cheryle, 2017, Predation, phytophagy and character state confusion among North American species of the genus Leptothrips (Thysanoptera: Phlaeothripinae), Zootaxa 4294 (3), pp. 301-315 : 313

Leptothrips papago Hood

Leptothrips papago Hood, 1939: 209 .

Leptothrips acaciae Hood, 1939: 211 . Synonymised by Johansen, 1987: 79. Leptothrips robustus Johansen, 1987: 47 . Syn. n.

Leptothrips arizonensis Johansen, 1987: 76 . Syn. n.

This species was based on a female holotype, with three female and one male paratypes, all collected from cottonwood, at Tucson, Arizona. Measurements of the antennae in the four species listed in the synonymy above are remarkably different. The length of antennal segments III+IV is 145 in the holotype of papago , whereas the measurements provided by Hood indicate only 107 for the holotype of acaciae . The similar measurement for the holotype of robustus is 130, and 110 for the holotype of arizonensis . No other character state differences have been found that correlate with this variation in antennal segment lengths. A further species in which these segments are unusually short is larreae , but in that species antennal segment III lacks a sense cone. Hood described acaciae from Wickenburg , Arizona, based on 17 females and one male collected from Acacia or Prosopis . Johansen described robustus from two specimens from Wyoming and one from Colorado, all three being mounted in Clarite. These specimens are thus seriously distorted, with the antennal sense cones almost completely eroded, and the fore wings of the holotype not available. However , one fore wing of the paratype from Wyoming clearly has no duplicated cilia. Johansen distinguished arizonensis from papago in a key, indicating that the eyes were not prolonged ventrally in the first but prolonged in papago . However , the difference in dorsal and ventral lengths of the eyes in the available specimens is largely dependent on how horizontal the head is on a slide-mounted specimen. Johansen placed robustus in his Group Obesus , presumably because the tube of the holotype is wide at the base ( Fig. 16 ). However , this specimen is mounted in clarite, and is thus crushed with the tube distorted. Individuals identified here as papago have been seen from a wide range of unrelated plants at sites between Utah and California, based on 100 slides in ERMR; the recorded plants include members of the following genera: Adenostema , Ceanothus , Chrysothamnus, Hymenochloa , Purshia and Quercus .

Figures

FIGURES 10 – 16. Leptothrips species of North America – abdominal segment X (tube). (10) mali female; (11) mali Male; (12) pini; (13) oribates (brevicapitis holotype); (14) gurdus holotype; (15) opimus holotype; (16) robustus holotype.