Liothrips austriacus (Karny)

Minaei, Kambiz & Mound, Laurence, 2014, The Liothrips-lineage of thrips (Thysanoptera: Phlaeothripidae) from Iran with the first record of micropterous morph of a Liothrips species, Zootaxa 3889 (1), pp. 107-117 : 111

Liothrips austriacus (Karny)

Hoodia austriaca Karny, 1910: 43 .

Recorded by Priesner (1964) as widespread in Central and Southern Europe with larvae on Ulmus glabra , this species is recorded from Turkey by Tunc et al. (2012) on Pistachio, and a few specimens are listed below from Pistacia vera in Iran, Kerman Province. Hasani and Fallahzadeh (2005) reported one adult collected on the leaves of Pistachia atlantica from Kerman Province. Mehrnejad and Panahi (2006) found austriacus infesting pistachio fruits with ruptured hulls, either at pre-maturation (early splits) or later (mature fruits with cracked hulls), and they recorded that this thrips infests up to 75% of pistachio nuts but subsequently has been the subject of other studies by Mehrnejad and Panahi (2006) and Kazemi and Mehrnejad (2011). According to Kazemi and Mehrnejad (2011), feeding by this thrips causes brown spots on the hull of fruit, and injured fruits become dry with irregular cracks in the pericarp. They examined these thrips-damaged fruits for aflatoxin contamination.

In structure austriacus is closely similar to setinodis , although that usually has the metanotum with weaker sculpture. These two species have possibly been confused in published literature, but they can be distinguished by means of the character states in the key above. In the collections at SMF there are specimens of austriacus from the following areas: Austria, Germany, Hungary, Croatia, Slovenia, Sweden, Spain, Turkey and Iran.

Material studied. IRAN, Kerman Province, Rafsenjan , from Pistacia vera : 4 females 1 male, vi.2003 (Reza Hasani), 3 females, 2 males, ix.2005 (Mehrnejad), in SMF ; from the same host and locality, 2 females, 30.vi.2008 (F. Kazemi), 1 female, 16.viii.2008 (G. Kashkoli) (in ANIC) ; from the same host and locality, 5 females, 4 males, 22.iv.2008, 8 females, 1 male, 30.vi.2008 (F. Kazemi), 3 females, 1 male, 16.viii.2008 (G. Kashkoli), 5 females, 30.viii.2010 (G. Kashkoli); Fars Province, Shiraz, Dinakan , from Pistacia atlantica : 2 females, 2 males, 4.vii.2014 ( KM 1216 ) (in PPSU).