Limothrips clarus Solowiow, 1924

Mound, Laurence A. & Negis, Inci Şahin, 2024, Two enigmatic species epithets in the genus Limothrips (Thysanoptera, Thripinae), Zootaxa 5512 (4), pp. 597-598 : 597

Limothrips clarus Solowiow, 1924

Solowiow stated that his new species clarus was amongst a few specimens representing five new species of thrips that he collected in Summer 1923 from herbs at Gorki, a Russian city just south of Moscow. There was no indication of the number of specimens involved for any of the species, nor any indication that they were deposited in any reference collection. Three of the species were members of the Terebrantia. One of these was considered a new genus in a new family – Paulus Solowiow in the Paulidae. This genus is now considered a synonym of Thrips , and the only species included, P. gracilis Solowiow (1924) , remains a senior homonym of the North American Thrips gracilis Moulton (1936) . The second Solowiow Terebrantian species, Thrips dentatus , remains an unrecognizable species of genus Thrips . However, the first Solowiow species was listed under the heading “Genus Limothrips Hal. ”, with the only information about this new species being the following words: “Fühler ohne dreieckigen Zusatz auf 2. und 3. Glied. Der ganze Körper und Zusätze sind der färbe nach gleichmässig hellgelb; die Zwischenräume der Abdomenringe sehr hell, durchsichtig“. Thus, all that the reader can know about this insect is that the body is pale yellow with the abdominal intersegmental membranes translucent, and that the second and third antennal segments do not have any lateral protrusions. The yellow body and lack of lateral projections on the basal antennal segments indicate that this is not a species of the genus Limothrips . But there is nothing in this description to even confirm that Solowiow actually had a species of Thysanopteran in front of him. Under these circumstances, it is here formally proposed that the name Limothrips clarus Solowiow, 1924 be considered a nomen dubium.