Stephanothrips Trybom, 1913

Mound, Laurence A. & Tree, Desley J., 2018, Fungus-feeding thrips of the genus Stephanothrips in Australia (Thysanoptera, Phlaeothripinae), Zootaxa 4442 (1), pp. 181-186 : 181

Stephanothrips Trybom

Stephanothrips Trybom, 1912: 42 . Type species S. buffai Trybom by monotypy.

With the two new species described below, 32 are now listed in this genus (ThripsWiki 2018). Of these species, five are from North America, two from southern Africa, four from Australia, and the others from Asia. Females of S. occidentalis are found widely in tropical and sub-tropical countries, but since males have been found only in southern Thailand ( Okajima & Urushihara 1995) this species probably originated in tropical Asia. Until the description below of howei sp.n., only three species in this genus, occidentalis , thai and zonatus , have been known as bearing a prominent hamus on the external margin of the fore tarsi, although this structure occurs in species of some other urothripine genera. Currently Stephanothrips is identified using the generic key provided by Mound (1972). However, the increasing number of species described in the genus since that date, also the increased number of species in both Baenothrips and Bradythrips , will necessitate a re-evaluation of this generic classification. Currently these genera are distinguished only on the degree of fusion of antennal segments three, four and five, and the number of setae on the anterior margin of the head, and both characters seem susceptible to variation.