Squamothrips crassus, Okajima & Masumoto, 2025

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 : 56-57

Squamothrips crassus sp. nov.

( Figs 212–221 )

Female (macroptera). Distended body length: 1.38–1.52mm. Body brown ( Fig. 212 ). Legs largely yellow, fore and mid femora scarcely shaded with brown. Antennal segments I– II and VII – VIII brown, but segment II paler antero-externally; segments III – VI yellow, segment VI weakly shaded with brown distally. Fore wings and major body setae pale. Head almost as long as wide ( Fig. 213 ); mid-dorsal setae well-developed, rather stout, 16–20µm length, blunt or weakly pointed (left one blunt, but right one weakly expanded in holotype). Cheeks very weakly rounded, with several stout setae, blunt or weakly expanded. Postocular setae shorter than eyes, 112µm apart from each other, 18–20µm apart from eyes in holotype. Eyes a little longer than one-third of head length, ommatidia slightly separated from each other. Ocelli relatively small; posterior pair slightly separated from eyes, 29µm apart from each other in holotype. Antennal segment III weakly swollen sub-basally; segment VII the longest ( Fig. 220 ). Mouth cone reaching a level of ferna. Pronotum ( Fig. 213 ) about 0.9 times as long as head, 1.62 times as wide as long in holotype; almost entirely reticulate, but reticle weaker than that on head, with a few discal setae that are somewhat stout, blunt, often weakly expanded, median longitudinal apodeme absent. Ferna rather small ( Fig. 214 ), wider apart from one another; prospinasternum about 75µm wide. Metanotum strongly sculptured with polygonal reticulation ( Fig. 215 ), median pair of setae about 25µm long, 56µm apart from each other, about 70µm apart from anterior margin of metanotum in holotype. Dorsal surface of fore femur with more than 10 stout setae, blunt or very weakly expanded. Fore wing with 6–7 duplicated cilia in holotype. Tergite IX S1 setae a little longer than S2. Tube ( Fig. 218 ) about 0.7 times as long as head .

Measurements ( holotype female in µm). Body length 1520 (distended). Head length 145, from anterior margin of eyes 140, width across eyes 138, maximum width across cheeks 146, minimum width across base 135; eyes length 52; diameter of posterior ocelli 9–12; postocular setae 36–38. Antenna total length about 300, segments III–VIII length (width) as follows: 40 (25), 39 (27), 37 (25), 38 (23), 43 (18), 27 (10). Pronotum length 130, width 210. Setae on prothorax: am 25, aa?25, ml?, pa 35, epim about 50. Fore wing length 520. Sub-basal wing setae: S1 25, S2 25, S3 35. Pelta length 55, width 55. Tergite IX setae: S1 66–70, S2 56 –60. Tube length 103, maximum width 48; terminal setae 83–90.

Male. Unknown.

Type material. Holotype: macropterous female, Thailand, nr. Chiang Mai, Pha Sang , on grass, 31.viii.1992. TN & SO . Paratypes: Thailand, nr. Chiang Mai, 1 female, foot of Doi Saket, 25.viii.1992, TN & SO, 1 female, Ka Jan , on bamboo, 3.ix.1992, SO, 1 female, Pha Hean, 3.ix.1992, SO .

Comments. This species is described from near Chiang Mai, northern Thailand, based on four females collected on different occasions. Two of the females were collected from bamboo and grass respectively, but the habitat of the remaining two females is uncertain .

Figures

FIGURES 212–221. Squamothrips crassus gen. et sp. nov., female. (212) whole body; (213) head, prothorax and fore legs; (214) prosternum and mesopresternum; (215) meso- and metanota; (216) pelta; (217) metathoracic sternopleural suture; (218) tube; (219) fore wing; (220) antennal segments III–VIII; (221) tergite III.