Arorathrips texanus (Andre) Andre, 2012

Nakahara, Sueo & Foottit, Robert G., 2012, Review of Chirothrips and related genera (Thysanoptera: Thripidae) of the Americas, with descriptions of one new genus and four new species, Zootaxa 3251, pp. 1-29 : 9-10

Arorathrips texanus (Andre) comb.n.

Chirothrips texanus Andre 1939: 200 .

Chirothrips auriventris Hood 1939a: 469 ; Andre , in Bailey 1949: 78. Chirothrips spinosus Moulton 1946: 56 syn.n.

Chirothrips pubescens Hood 1949a: 20 ; zur Strassen 1975: 78.

Distribution: United States (GA, IL, LA, MS, ND, NM, OK, TX); Mexico, Haiti, Brazil, Paraguay ( Watts 1972). Comments: Chirothrips auriventris known from NM, OK, TX and Mexico (records based on examined material) appears to be a form of A. texanus with a slightly smaller and slightly different shaped antennal segment II. When three dimensions (length from apex of lateral angulation to inner margin, apex of angulation to base of lateral margin, and apex of angulation to base of inner margin) of segment II were analysed for both taxa, those of A. auriventris were consistantly similar and separable from those of A. texanus . However, the differences in the measurements were small and therefore, the senior author decided to continue treating C. auriventris as a junior synonym. According to the description of spinosus from Haiti, which is represented only by the holotype and a paratype, the fore wings are pale and the outer posteroangular setae are 43 µm long and the inner pair 26 µm long. The paratype examined in this study has similarly longer outer pair (48 µm long) than the inner pair (27 µm long). These specimens were collected in 1929 and described in 1946. Thus the color of the fore wing could have faded during the 17 year interval in alcohol. The fore wings of C. texanus and C. pubescens are light brown with the base pale and, according to Andre (1939) , pronotal posteroangular setae of C. texanus are 40–49 µm long. Although C. spinosus has a longer body and antenna, it cannot be distinguished reliably from C. texanus .