Hoplothrips lanaiensis (Bagnall)

Mound, Laurence A., 2017, Intra-specific structural variation among Hawaiian Hoplothrips (Thysanoptera, Phlaeothripidae), with ten new synonymies and one new species, ZooKeys 722, pp. 137-152 : 142

Hoplothrips lanaiensis (Bagnall)

Dolerothrips lanaiensis Bagnall, 1910: 690.

Hoplothrips hawaiiensis Moulton, 1936: 185. Syn. n.

Remarks.

In describing hawaiiensis from eight females and two males (presumably all micropterae) taken on Oahu and Maui, Moulton compared it to perkinsi , claiming that this was the only species from Hawaii with "spines so reduced at the posterior angles of abdominal segments". However, Bagnall clearly stated of lanaiensis "abdominal bristles obsolete" when he described this species from 10 female and 8 male micropterae taken on Lanai, Molokai and Hawaii. The tergal lateral setae on the only remaining specimens of this species (two females and the lectotype male from Lanai) are similar to those on hawaiiensis (Figs 23, 24). As in perkinsi , the metanotum is reticulate medially. However, in perkinsi the lateral setal pair on tergites VI–VIII are longer (on VII 180 microns) than on the type specimens of lanaiensis and hawaiiensis (on VII no more than 30 microns). The published year of collection differs for the type specimens of perkinsi and lanaiensis , but their collection numbers (Perkins 91 and 92) suggest that they were actually collected together at the same locality on Lanai. If more specimens become available, the differences in tergal setal lengths may be found to fall within the range of a single species, and lanaiensis would thus be a synonym of perkinsi . However, a single macropterous female was collected on Oahu, Mokuleia Trail, in July 2016 that is here identified as lanaiensis . The pronotal epimeral setae, and also setae S1 and S2 on tergite VIII, are short with curiously blunt apices.