Thrips leucaenae, Moulton, 1942

Moulton, Dudley, 1942, Thysanoptera: Thrips of Guam, Insects of Guam I, Bernice P. Bishop Museum Bulletin, pp. 7-16 : 9-10

8. Thrips leucaenae , new species.

Female holotype: head and thorax golden brown with back of head lighter and sides of pterothorax darker, abdomen brown; antenna! segments 1, 2, and 4 to 7 brown with extreme bases of 4 and 5 lighter, segment 3 yellow; legs yellow with outer middle portions of middle and hind femora darkened with brown; wings brownish, lighter at base; prominent spines on body and wings brown; crescents of ocelli dark orange.

Head clearly wider than long, cheeks arched, back of head cross striate; ocelli large, with a stout spine immediately in front of and behind each posterior ocellus; fifth antenna! segment broadly joined to six. Prothorax faintly cross striate and rather conspicuously spinose; posterior margin normally with three inner spines on either side. Spines of!}1etanotal plate placed immediately on the anterior margin. Spines on fore vein of forewing as follows: (right wing) four basal, followed by njne continuing to past middle of wing, two and one distal; (left wing) four basal, followed by six and then 1-1-1-1; hind vein with fifteen-sixteen. Abdominal segments 3 to 7 each with a dark brown transverse line near anterior margin; comb on posterior margin of segment 8 complete but weak; tenth segment with complete dorsal suture.

Total body length 1.04 mm.; head length 0.13 mm., width 0.16 mm.; prothorax length 0.14 mm., width 0.20 mm.; spines on posterior angles of prothorax, outer 66, inner 82 microns; on ninth abdominal segment 106 and on tenth 113 microns. Antenna! segments, length (width): II, 33 (24); III, 40 (18); IV, 53 (16); V, 40 (16); VI, 50 (16); VII, 16 microns.

Piti, May 1, June 22, in flowers of Leucaena glauca (5464) and Barringtonia raceniosa (5474), holotype female, five para type females, Swezey .

The spines of fore veins of forewings of the paratypes show much varia­ tion, one paratype having four basal followed by a second series of four and

with three distal. A second paratype, on the right wing, has four basal, four - median and four widely scattered distal spines, while on left wing there are four basal, followed by six reaching to middle of wing and four scattered in distal half.

T. leucaenae is most closely related to T. hawaiiensis imitator Friesner (albipes Bagnall) and might possibly be a variation of this species. However until more specimens are available for comparison, it seems advisable to hold it as a separate species. I have examined a long series of T. hawaiiensis from the Hawaiian islands, China and Japan and the arrangement of spines on the fore vein is consistent with the usual two groups of three or four at the base and the three, sometimes four, distal spines. The basal spines invariably encl opposite the second or third spine in the series on the posterior vein, never extending to or beyond the middle of the wing. The posterior angle spines of the prothorax also are longer in leucaenae than in hawaiiensis or its variety imitator .