Haplothrips williamsi Moulton

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 : 87

Haplothrips williamsi Moulton

Remarks.

This species apparently remains known only from the original series of eight females taken at the western end of Hawaii in 1929. The original description was rather superficial, but the holotype and one paratype have now been re-examined. Based on these specimens, williamsi is one of the very few amongst the 240 species of Haplothrips that has two sense cones on antennal segment III but on segment IV has only three (instead of four) sense cones. The head (Fig. 13) and body are light brown with the tube darkest. The legs are almost clear yellow as is antennal segment III in contrast to the uniformly dark brown of segments IV–VIII. The antennal sense cones are rather stout with rounded apices. The maxillary stylets are retracted to the postocular setae, and one third of the head width apart with a distinct maxillary bridge. The fore tarsus has a slight thickening at the inner apex that might be interpreted as a particularly minute tooth. The metanotum lacks sculpture medially, and the median major setae are finely pointed. In contrast, most of the major setae are capitate including S1 on tergite VIII, but S2 on VIII and all three pairs on IX are finely acute and longer than the tube. This species shows interesting similarities to the endemic species davisi and rosai , in the the fore tarsus and the conical form of antennal segment III, also the elongate acute setae on tergite IX.