Thrips safrus Mound and Masumoto, 1758

Mound, Laurence A., Matsunaga, Janis N., Bushe, Brian, Hoddle, Mark S. & Wells, Alice, 2017, Adventive Thysanoptera Species in the Hawaiian Islands: New Records and Putative Host Associations, Proceedings of the Hawaiian Entomological Society 49, pp. 17-28 : 21

Thrips safrus Mound and Masumoto .

This species was identified from the Hawaiian Islands as Thrips imaginis Bagnall (see Mound et al. 2016), based on specimens collected on Leptecophylla tameiameiae [ Ericaceae ] flowers at Haleakala National Park, Maui. Contrary to previous information, those specimens were not retained in 2003 by the Systematic Entomology Laboratory, USDA, Beltsville. They were returned to the collector, Paul Krushelnycky, through whose courtesy they have now been re-examined. In contrast to specimens of imaginis, the Australian plague thrips, the females collected from Maui lack discal setae on the abdominal pleurotergites. This condition is typical of safrus, a polyphagous species that is common in northern Australia ( Mound and Masumoto 2005). The two species are otherwise closely similar in structure, and both are notable for the numerous (15–25) discal setae on the abdominal sternites. Three further females of safrus were taken on the Hawaiian Islands in July, 2016; one on Hawaii near Volcano from Nestegis sandwicensis [ Oleaceae ], one on Hawaii on Mauna Loa at 2050 m from flowers of Vaccinium sp. [ Ericaceae ], and a third on Maui at Waihee Ridge, from the flowers of an introduced Acacia sp. [ Fabaceae ].