Bolacothrips pulcher (Girault)

Plesiothrips pulcher Girault, 1929: 3

This species has been taken widely in eastern Australia, from Cape Tribulation in northern Queensland to Batemans Bay just south of Sydney and also at Canberra. It has been found around Darwin in Northern Territory, as well as on Lord Howe Island and New Caledonia. Abdominal tergites IX–X are uniformly dark brown, but VIII is variable from brown to yellowish-brown, the anterior margin of the head is sometimes shaded brown, and the fore wings are pale with a weak transverse darker mark. Judging from the description, B. graminis from Egypt is similar, but the other two species with bicoloured abdomen are considered to have almost uniformly pale fore wings, and evittatus has three pairs of posteromarginal setae on sternite II instead of the normal two pairs. In structure and chaetotaxy, pulcher is similar to the Australian specimens of striatopennatus, with one of the four lateral setae on tergite II very slightly displaced medially.