Haplothrips robustus Bagnall

Mound, Laurence A. & Matsunaga, Janis N., 2017, The species of Haplothrips (Thysanoptera, Phlaeothripinae) and related genera recorded from the Hawaiian Islands, ZooKeys 662, pp. 79-92 : 86

Haplothrips robustus Bagnall

Haplothrips robustus Bagnall, 1918: 209.

Haplothrips sesuvii Priesner, 1933: 363. syn. n.

Remarks.

This new synonymy is based on a comparison of a paralectotype of sesuvii from Java, on loan from the Senckenberg Museum, Frankfurt, with more than 50 specimens of robustus from across Australia, some of which were earlier compared with the holotype of this species in the Natural History Museum, London ( Pitkin 1973; Mound and Minaei 2007). These two species were distinguished from each other by zur Strassen (1983), who provided seven sets of measurements, including wing width, maxillary bridge width and lengths of setae on tergites VIII and IX, each of which was larger in robustus than in sesuvii . However, although zur Strassen provided details of the type specimens of sesuvii that he studied, he did not indicate from what specimens of robustus his comparative measurements were taken. Measurements of the paralectotype of sesuvii fit well within the range of structural variation that occurs in robustus females from across Australia, and this variation is not unusual for a polyphagous, widespread species. Although known from Indonesia, Australia, New Hebrides, and Oahu, no male of this species is known, and the possibility exists that it may have been introduced from somewhere in Africa ( Mound and Minaei 2007). In the Hawaiian Islands this thrips is recorded only from Oahu. The first record ( Bianchi 1947), under the name sesuvii , was from Sesuvium portulacastrum [ Aizoaceae ] but specimens have been studied that were collected on Oahu by Sakimura at various dates between 1946 and 1970 from Lipochaeta [ Asteraceae ] and Atriplex [ Chenopodiaceae ]. Amongst the Hawaiian thrips fauna it is the only species with broad fore wings that are constricted medially but lack duplicated cilia on the distal posterior margin (Fig. 18).