Leucothrips furcatus Hood, 1931

Masumoto, Masami & Okajima, Shûji, 2017, Studies on Dendrothripinae (Thysanoptera, Thripidae) from Japan, with new records and one new species, Zootaxa 4362 (3), pp. 405-420 : 407

Leucothrips furcatus Hood

( Figs 1 , 11–13 )

Leucothrips furcatus Hood, 1931: 153 .

Female macroptera. Body and all legs uniformly pale ( Fig. 1 ); antennal segments I–III pale, IV–VI pale with apices shaded, VII pale brown; fore wing including clavus uniformly pale; major body setae pale. Head almost smooth, weakly sculptured behind ocellar triangle ( Fig. 11 ); compound eyes with six pigmented facets larger than remaining facets and several weakly pigmented facets. Antenna 7-segmented, segments III and IV with forked sensoria, segment VII with ventral sensorium exceeding apex of segment ( Fig. 12 ). Ratio of length/width of antennal segments I–VII as follows: 1.0, 1.0, 2.0, 2.0, 2.0, 2.5, 5.3. Pronotum smooth between striae, about 8 discal setae; posteromarginal setae longer than discal setae, S4 longest and about twice as long as remaining setae. Mesonotum smooth between striae. Metascutum sculptured with closely spaced longitudinal striae, closer than diameter of setal bases, smooth between striae. Fore wing costal vein with about 26 setae. Abdominal tergite I transversely reticulate at middle, laterally with small microtrichia on posterior margin; tergites II–VIII with anastomosing transverse striae having small microtrichia lateral to S2 setae and smooth medially, with small microtrichia on posterior margin lateral to S2 setae behind S1 setae, with 7 pairs of setae on III–VII ( Fig. 13 ); tergite IX with microtrichia on posterior third anterior to setae; tergite X with microtrichia on posterior half anterior to setae; sternite VII with S1 and S2 setae in front of posterior margin.

Male macroptera. General structure very similar to female, but sensoria on antennal segments III and IV simple.

Specimens examined. JAPAN: Ryukyus: Okinawa-hontou Is., Naha City, Sueyoshi park, 9 females on leaf of Ipomoea congesta [ Convolvulaceae ], 23.xii.2009, T. Kikumura (TUA). 7 females on leaf of Ipomoea congesta , 13.ix.2014, K. Minoura (TUA).

Comments. This species can be distinguished from L. theobromae only by the head lacking a red spot on anterior margin (Mound et al. 2015). We concluded that the specimens from Okinawa are L. furcatus because the head has no the red pigments. This species is here newly recorded from Japan.

Figures

FIGURES 1–10. Japanese species of Dendrothripinae. Leucothrips, female 1–3. (1) L. furcatus; (2) L. nigripennis; (3) L. piercei. Pseudodendrothrips, 4–10; (4) P.bhattii, female; (5) P.darci, female; (6) P.lateralis, female; (7) P.lateralis, male:(8) P. maculatus, female; (9) P.maculatus, male; (10) P.mori, female.

FIGURES 11–16. Leucothrips furcatus, female 11–13. (11) Head & pronotum; (12) Antennal segments III–VII; (13) Abdominal tergite VII.Leucothrips nigripennis, female, 14–16; (14) Head & pronotum; (15) Antenna; (16) Metascutum.