Thrips vitticornis (Karny)

Mound, Laurence A. & Masumoto, Masami, 2005, The genus Thrips (Thysanoptera, Thripidae) in Australia, New Caledonia and New Zealand, Zootaxa 1020 (1), pp. 1-64 : 55-56

Thrips vitticornis (Karny)

Physothrips vitticornis Karny, 1922: 103 Diagnosis: Body brown, tarsi and antennal segment III and base of IV yellow; forewing uniformly brown. Head wider than long, ocellar setae pair III longer than side of ocellar triangle ( Fig. 104 ) and arising outside lateral margins of ocellar triangle; postocular setae very small. Antennae 8­segmented, III & IV slightly constricted at apex with short forked sense cone; segments VII & VIII short. Pronotum with 2 pairs of long postero­angular setae, posterior margin with 3 pairs of small setae. Metanotum ( Fig. 103 ) with very closely spaced longitudinal lines medially and with finer lines between these major lines; median setae long, arising at anterior margin; campaniform sensilla present. Forewing first vein with 3–8 setae on distal half, second vein with about 14 setae; clavus with 5 marginal setae. Tergite II with 4 lateral marginal setae; posterior margin of tergite VIII with comb absent medially but represented by a few irregular microtrichia laterally. Sternite II with 2 pairs of marginal setae, III–VII with 3 pairs; median marginal setae on VII arising at margin; sternite II with 1 to 2 discal setae, III–VII with discal setae varying from 10 to 14 in one transverse row; pleurotergites without discal setae.

Male brown, smaller than female; tergite VIII without posteromarginal comb; sternites III–VII with broad glandular area.

Breeding: Apparently associated with the flowers of Papilionaceae , this species was found in considerable numbers in the flowers of the cover crop Calopogonium , near Darwin.

Distribution: Widespread from India to the Pacific Islands, this species is recorded from Australia only around Darwin in the Northern Territory.

Relationships: The closely striate metanotal sculpture suggests that T. vitticornis is related to various species from the Pacific Region, such as T. rhabdotus (see Palmer, 1992). However, those species have the row of setae on the forewing first vein usually almost complete, whereas in T. vitticornis the number of setae on the distal half of this vein varies from a maximum of eight to the typical condition of three setae that occurs in many species of the genus Thrips .

Figures

FIGURES 96–105. Thrips species. T. tomeus 96–99: (96) Head & pronotum; (97) Meso­metanota; (98) Tergites VII–VIII; (99) Fore tarsus. T. trehernei (100) Meso­metanota. T. unispinus 101–102: (101) Head & pronotum; (102) Sternites VI–VII. T. vitticornis 103–104: (103) Meso­metanota; (104) Head & pronotum. T. vulgatissimus (105) Meso­metanota.