Teuchothrips simplicipennis Hood

Mound, Laurence A., 2008, Identification and host associations of some Thysanoptera Phlaeothripinae described from Australia pre- 1930, Zootaxa 1714, pp. 41-60 : 53-54

Teuchothrips simplicipennis Hood

Teuchothrips simplicipennis Hood, 1919: 86

Mesothrips insolens Bagnall, 1924: 638 . syn.n.

Hood described this species from “two females taken by sweeping in forest, at Brooklyn, New South Wales, November 1 and 9, 1914 ”, whereas Bagnall described insolens from an unspecified number of both sexes collected by R. Kelly in January 1917 from Leptospermum myrsinoides at Healesville, Victoria. This is the type species of Teuchothrips , but further specimens have proved difficult to find. The only recent specimens that are unequivocally conspecific were taken at sites near Adelaide in South Australia on L. myrsinoides . This host plant association is interesting, because although L. myrsinoides is common from Adelaide and Kangaroo Island in South Australia to Lakes Entrance in eastern Victoria, there are few records of this plant in coastal New South Wales, and only one in the region of Sydney where the type specimens of T. simplicipennis were presumably collected.

In this species, the postocular setae of females are short ( Fig. 24 ), not extending to the posterior margin of the eyes, but in males these setae are considerably longer. In general appearance the species resembles minor , the only other member of this group known to lack forewing duplicated cilia. However, in T. simplicipennis antennal segment IV bears 3+1 sensoria, and tergite IX setae S1 are capitate and 0.6 as long as the tube in females and even longer in males. Sternite VIII of males has a transverse glandular area anterior to the discal setae.

Figures

FIGURES 23 – 28. Teuchothrips and Neocecidothrips species. (23) T. froggatti head & thorax. T. simplicipennis 24 – 25: (24) Head & pronotum; (25) Antenna. N. bursariae 26 – 28: (26) Antenna; (27) Head & thorax; (28) Male sternite VIII.