Thysanoptera

Mound, Laurence A. & Morris, David C., 2007, A new thrips pest of Myoporum cultivars in California, in a new genus of leaf-galling Australian Phlaeothripidae (Thysanoptera), Zootaxa 1495, pp. 35-45 : 37

Thysanoptera Phlaeothripidae classification

The Phlaeothripidae is the sole family recognized by most entomologists in the sub-order Tubulifera, despite a large number of family-group names having been proposed (see, Mound & Morris, 2004). Of the 3400 described species in this family, most are placed in the subfamily Phlaeothripinae, with about 700 that apparently feed on fungal spores being referred to the subfamily Idolothripinae. Evolutionary relationships within, and classification of, the Phlaeothripinae remains unclear, with three ill-defined lineages being recognized, each centred around one major genus ( Mound & Marullo, 1996). The small “ Haplothrips -lineage”, in which many species are flower-feeders, has recently been formally defined and recognized at the tribal level as the Haplothripini to include about 35 genera (Mound & Minaei, in press). The much larger “ Phlaeothrips - lineage” is more difficult to define, particularly because of the structural polymorphisms that occur in the large number of fungus-feeding species involved ( Mound, 2005b). Similarly large and problematical is the “ Liothrips -lineage” of leaf-feeding species, and it is within this group of more than 150, often poorly defined, genera that the new pest species is placed, together with all the pest Phlaeothripidae noted above.