Podothrips semiflavus Hood

Okajima, Shûji & Masumoto, Masami, 2025, Some Poaceae-inhabiting Phlaeothripinae (Thysanoptera, Phlaeothripidae) in East Asia, with descriptions of six new genera and 18 new species, Zootaxa 5726 (1), pp. 1-68 : 46

Podothrips semiflavus Hood

Podothrips semiflavus Hood, 1913: 67 .

This species was described from Puerto Rico based on several females and males taken from a grass species, Panicum barbinode . Subsequently, a synonymous species, P. aegyptiacus was described from Egypt by Priesner (1929). It has widely been recorded from U.S.A. ( Florida and Puerto Rico), Cyprus, Jamaica, Uganda, Egypt, India ( Bhatti 1962), Myanmar ( Shumsher 1947) and Guangdong, China ( Dang et al. 2019). It usually inhabits sugar cane and other economic Poaceae ( Ritchie 1974) , and therefore can be considered as having been artificially transported with these plants and spread widely. According to the original description, this species is blackish brown at sides of metathorax, but the pterothorax is largely brown in some specimens from Uganda ( Ritchie 1974). A female and a male from Uganda listed below as examined were studied by Richie and have dark brown pterothorax. In contrast, a female recorded recently from Guangdong, China, has the pterothorax entirely yellow ( Fig. 19 in Dang et al., 2019). Despite the large difference in color of the pterothorax, the reason for identifying it as semiflavus is not stated at all by Dang et al. Unfortunately, these East Asian specimens have not been available for this study.

Specimens examined. Uganda, Lugazi , ex Aulacaspis regalensis on sugar cane, 1 female, 16.i.1969, 1 male, 31.i.1969, D.J. Greathead .

Figures

FIGURES 6–19. Androthrips species, female 6–10: (6) A. bambusicola sp. nov.; (7) A. dambriae sp. nov.; (8) A. fuscipes sp. nov.; (9) A. graminicola sp. nov.; (10) A. javae sp. nov. Androthrips bambusicola sp. nov. 11–19: (11) head and prothorax, female; (12) head, male; (13) prosternum and mesopresternum, female; (14) pelta, female; (15) fore leg, female; (16) fore femur, male; (17) fore tibia and tarsus, female; (18) tube, female; (19) antenna, female.