Aeolothrips Haliday, 1836

Masumoto, Masami & Okajima, Shûji, 2019, Review of the Aeolothripidae (Thysanoptera) in Japan, Zootaxa 4564 (2), pp. 301-326 : 302

Aeolothrips Haliday

Aeolothrips Haliday, 1936: 451 . Type-species: Aeolothrips albicinctus Haliday, 1936 , by original designation and monotypy.

Wings fully developed or small. Maxillary palps 3-segmented. Ocellar setae and postocular setae numerous and scattered. Antennae 9-segmented, segments III and IV with longitudinal linear sensoria, V–IX united. Pronotum with no long setae but posteromarginal setae often longer than discal setae. Mesonotum sculptured with transverse anastomosing striae; median pair of setae situated far from posterior margin. Metascutum variously reticulated; median pair of setae near posterior margin. Meso and metasternal endofurca with spinula. Fore wing wide and rounded at apex, usually with transverse or longitudinal dark band; clavus with 6–11 veinal and 1 discal setae ( A. albicinctus with no discal setae). Tarsi 2-segmented, fore tarsi with strongly recurved hamus. Abdominal tergites not divided from pleurotergites; tergite X without longitudinal median split, with a pair of small trichobothria; sternites without posteromarginal craspeda; sternites I with one, and II with three pairs of microsetae; sternites II– VI usually without discal setae; VII with two pairs of accessory setae arising in front of posterior margin. Male abdominal tergite I with two longitudinal ridges; tergites III–VI with or without paired posteromarginal tubercles; tergite IX with or without paired claspers.

Remarks. This genus includes 106 extant species mainly from the Holarctic region (ThripsWiki 2018), whereas very few species are known from other areas: six species in India ( Bhatti 1990; Tyagi & Kumar 2006), 6 species in Central America (Mound & Marullo 1996), 4 species in Africa (zur Strassen 2006; also see Hartwig 1952), and only the European A. fasciatus recorded from Australia ( Mound 1967; Mound et al. 2018). Many species are known from the Middle East to Europe ( Alavi & Minaei 2018; zur Strassen 2003) and North America ( Bailey 1951; Hoddle et al. 2012). Alavi and Minaei (2018) studied character states of Aeolothrips in detail together with keys to 27 species from Iran. The structure of the spermatheca is a useful character for discrimination of species in Aeolothrips ( Bhatti, 1988; Alavi et al., 2015, 2018), although it is not always visible in a suitable condition depending on slide-making. In Japanese specimens of A. fasciatus and A. melaleucus , spermatheca structure appears to be not identical to European individuals as mentioned below. However, the present authors treated these two species as same as previous Japanese record here, but further study is needed on the identities of these species from Japan.