Teuchothrips ater (Girault)

Mound, Laurence A., 2008, Identification and host associations of some Thysanoptera Phlaeothripinae described from Australia pre- 1930, Zootaxa 1714, pp. 41-60 : 47-49

Teuchothrips ater (Girault)

Liothrips ater Girault, 1927a: 2

Androthrips niger Girault, 1927a: 2

Teuchothrips bursariicola Priesner, 1928: 647 Teuchothrips pittosporiicola Bagnall, 1929: 191 . syn.n. Smerinthothrips fuscipennis Moulton, 1968: 93 -4 Teuchothrips ater (Girault) ; Mound & Houston, 1987: 17

This is interpreted as a structurally variable, polyphagous species. It is a minor pest in eastern Australia, inducing deformation of, and producing substantial colonies on, the apical leaves of Pittosporum undulatum ( Fig. 2 ), both in gardens and in forests. In South Australia it has been found inducing leaf rolls on Pittosporum phylliraeoides , and cultivated varieties of this plant have also been damaged by this thrips near Perth in Western Australia. It is recorded below forming substantial colonies on the external surfaces of galls that were induced by Neocecidothrips curviseta on Auranticarpa rhombifolia (Pittosporaceae) . Although recorded in association with the common shrub, Bursaria spinosa , another member of the Pittosporeaceae, and taken in leaf galls on several other plants, including Geijera (Rutaceae) , on these plants it is possibly a kleptoparasite within galls that have been induced by other thrips. Adults vary in size within populations, and sometimes vary between populations in the form of the apices of the setae on the ninth tergite.

The single specimen from which Girault described ater is a female, collected from Eucalyptus at Melbourne, the single specimen from which he described niger came from southern Queensland on brigalow ( Acacia harpophylla ), and Moulton’s description of fuscipennis was based on three females from Port Lincoln, South Australia, with no host association. In contrast, Bagnall described the species from both sexes taken on Pittosporum leaves at Sydney, and Priesner described bursariicola from both sexes taken on Bursaria spinosa at Healesville in Victoria. The synonymy of nigronympha Girault indicated by Mound & Houston (1987) is now recognised as incorrect (see connatus below).

Mound (1968) indicated that in pittosporiicola the S1 and S2 setae on tergite IX have acute apices, but that these setae in the type specimens of bursariicola have their apices “softly pointed or weakly expanded”. Moreover, South Australian specimens from Pittosporum phylliraeoides were identified as bursariicola on this character. Specimens collected recently from P. phylliraeoides in Western Australia also have these setae distinctly expanded, thus a possibility remains that the form on P. phylliraeoides represents a different species from the one with finely acute setae on P. undulatum . However, the name niger would have priority over bursariicola , because the male type of niger has tergite IX setae S1 and S2 with expanded apices. Because, within some populations, the form of the setal apices is variable from softly pointed to weakly capitate, the niger form is here considered to be the same species as the ater form in which the setae are finely acute. Despite extensive searching, this species has not been taken by the present author from Bursaria . One sample of both sexes with tergite IX setae finely acute has been studied that bears the data “ Geijera salicifolia, Mullaley , NSW”, but that host plant record is almost certainly incorrect as G. salicifolia does not occur so far west of the Great Dividing Range as Mullaley.

Figures

FIGURE 2. Leaf-roll gall on Pittosporum undulatum induced by Teuchothrips ater.