Rohrthrips rhamphorhynchus, Ulitzka, 2022

Ulitzka, Manfred R., 2022, New genera and species of Rohrthripidae (Thysanoptera: Tubulifera) from Burmese Cretaceous amber, Zootaxa 5162 (1), pp. 1-36 : 17-18

Rohrthrips rhamphorhynchus sp. n.

( Figs 17 , 37 )

Sex not determinable, distal abdominal segments ventrally obscured. Body distended except for mesonotum, which is somewhat retracted under pronotum; left wings spread but broken off at about one-third of wing length; right fore wing spread, right hind wing overlapping body; legs spread except for right fore and hind leg, which are folded under head and body, respectively. Tube broken off at tip.

Colour ( Fig. 17 ) uniformly dark brown, including antennae and legs; all major setae dark as well as wing veins and fringes; wings shaded brownish, slightly paler at base.

Head ( Fig. 37 ) about as long as wide; projecting over antennal bases; protruding in front of eyes and incised anteriorly and posteriorly to eyes; sculpture difficult to assess, but coarse reticulations are clearly visible laterally. Cheeks slightly convex; each with two weak lateral setae. One pair of stout ocellar setae attached on a distinct tubercle near the outer margin of antennal bases, longer than antennal segment I; a second pair close to the front margin of the eyes, much weaker and shorter. Postocular setae far behind compound eyes; pointed, long and stout. Eyes small but protruding at front margin; laterally occupying about one quarter of the head length; slightly prolonged ventrally. Hind ocelli close to compound eyes, fore ocellus not visible. Antennae nine-segmented; segment I long, broadened at base, cone-shaped; II inversely conical, sensorium not assessable; III–VIII with a pedicle at base, then inverse cone shaped and distally flat, IX conical and broadly attached to VIII. Sensorium on segment II not visible; number of sense cones of the following segments difficult to assess, at least one outer and one inner on III–VI and one inner on VII. Mouth cone long, slender and pointed, protruding over base of prosternum ( Figs 17 , 37 ). Maxillary stylets retracted to hind margin of compound eyes, running close together and parallel towards the mouth cone; left mandibula long and curved, right mandibula vestigial. Maxillary palps not visible. Pronotum ( Fig. 37 ) trapezoidal, wider than long; pronotal posteroangular and epimeral setae long and finely pointed; other pronotal setae not visible. Mesonotum not assessable; metanotum with a pair of strong setae far behind front margin of plate. Fore wings ( Fig. 17 ) becoming progressively larger in distal half; with two veins. First wing vein shortened, extending only to base of distal wing rounding; furnished with five dispersed small setae (only one seta in distal wing half about as long as distance between wing vein and fore margin of wing); second vein developed in basal third only, without any setae. All wings basally with some microtrichia, especially hind wings; distal parts of wing membrane smooth. Fringe cilia straight; arising from sockets. Duplicated cilia present around apical margin of wing; running parallel to normal wing fringes. Hind wing without any veins. Wing coupling system hamulo-frenate; hamulate component consisting of two hamuli at anterior margin close to base of hind wing (the setiform process on the right wing has three setae instead of only two). Fore legs with femora enlarged ( Fig. 17 ); tibiae dorsally with a long hair-like seta; fore tarsi with a strong tooth and with hamus. Mid legs slender. All femora with one long ventral and all tibiae with one long dorsal seta; mid and hind tibiae terminally each with three spines; mid and hind tarsi two-segmented, with hamus. Abdominal tergites without wing-retaining setae, but with fine long and recurved dorsal and lateral setae; sculpture not assessable. Abdomen, tergite I not assessable; tergite II with a dorsolateral suture slanting laterally inwards. Segment IX conical, tergal setae s1 stout but tips broken off, much stronger than s2 (also with tips broken off) and s3, which are long, hair-like and finely pointed. Abdominal segment X tubular, tip broken off.

Measurements. MU-Fos-140/1 (in microns): Body, length>1410 (tip of tube broken off). Head, length 140; largest width 142. Eyes, length 50; width 31. Hind ocelli, diameter 12; distance between the hind ocelli 30. Ocellar setae s1 65; s2 19. Postocular setae 81. Pronotum, length 183; width 179; posteroangular setae about 70–80 (difficult to measure) and epimeral setae 108. Pterothorax, largest width 290. Abdomen, partial length (segments I–IX) 668; largest width 347 (segment III); segment X (tube; tip broken off), length <112; basal width 25. Setae on tergite IX, s1 and s2 with tips broken off; s3 294. Antennae, length 429; length (largest width) of segment I 74 (31), II 50 (28), III 62 (31), IV 50 (31), V 50 (31), VI 50 (25), VII 43 (24), VIII 28 (14), IX 22 (12). Sense cones, length of inner (outer) on segment III 19 (22), IV 16 (19), V 12 (12), VI 12 (12), VII 12 (–); basal width of inner (outer) about 4 (5) (measured on segment III). Fore wings, length 1078; largest width 196.

Material studied. Holotype female MU-Fos-140/1 ( Fig. 17 ); inclusion in Burmese amber from Hukawng Valley , Kachin State, Myanmar. The holotype was donated by Patrick Müller and is deposited in the author’s collection.

Syninclusions. Remnants of another insect, plant trichomes, one of which is attached to the thrips’ antenna.

Etymology. The species epithet rhamphorhynchus comes from the Greek words ῥάµΦΟς (rhamphos), meaning “beak” and ῥύγχΟς (rhynchos), meaning “snout”. It refers to the long and pointed mouth cone of this species ( Figs 17 , 37 ).

Figures

FIGURES 16–18. Rohrthrips spp. (16) Rohrthrips pandemicus sp. n. holotype female aptera, dorsal view; (17) Rohrthrips rhamphorhynchus sp. n. holotype, dorsal view, indicated: second vein at base of fore wing; mouth cone outlined white; (18) Rohrthrips setiger sp. n. holotype female, right fore wing, indicated: second wing vein at base.

FIGURES 35–38. Line drawings of Rohrthripidae. Head, mouthparts and prothorax (md: mandibula, mx: maxillary stylets) 35–37: (35) Adstrictubothrips mirapterus gen. et sp. n. holotype female; (36) Gemineurothrips peculiaris gen. et sp. n. holotype (spa: posteroangular setae, left broken off and lying close to coxa; scx: coxal setae); (37) Rohrthrips rhamphorhynchus sp. n. holotype. (38) Rohrthrips multihamuli sp. n. holotype; left antenna, segment numbers in Roman numerals, indicated: ventral projections on segments V–VII (cs: campaniform sensillum, uncolored trichomes indicate presumptive sense cones).