Thrips parvispinus (Karny)

Mound, Laurence A. & Masumoto, Masami, 2005, The genus Thrips (Thysanoptera, Thripidae) in Australia, New Caledonia and New Zealand, Zootaxa 1020 (1), pp. 1-64 : 42-43

Thrips parvispinus (Karny)

Isoneurothrips parvispinus Karny, 1922: 106

Isoneurothrips jensensi Karny, 1925: 7

Isoneurothrips pallipes Moulton, 1928: 296

Thrips (Isoneurothrips) taiwanus Takahashi, 1936: 440

Diagnosis: Body brown, head and thorax paler than abdomen, head commonly with cheeks darker than median area; legs mainly yellow; antennal segment III yellow, also basal half of IV & V; forewings brown with base sharply pale. Head wider than long, ocellar setae pair III small and arising on anterior margins of ocellar triangle; postocular setae pairs I & III slightly longer than ocellar setae III, pair II minute. Antennae 7­segmented, III & IV constricted at apex with forked sense cone, VII small. Pronotum with 2 pairs of long postero­angular setae; posterior margin with 3 pairs of setae. Metanotum reticulate medially ( Fig. 75 ), reticles varying in shape and sometimes with faint internal markings; median setae long and arising behind anterior margin; campaniform sensilla absent. Forewing first and second veins with complete rows of setae; clavus with 5 marginal setae. Tergite II with 3 lateral marginal setae; posterior margin of tergite VIII with comb almost absent, a few microtrichia present laterally; pleurotergites without discal setae. Sternite II with 2 pairs of marginal setae, III–VII with 3 pairs, VII with median pair arising in front of margin; II & VII without discal setae, III–VI with about 6 to 12 discal setae in an irregular row ( Fig. 76 ).

Male largely yellow; tergite VIII with no posteromarginal comb; tergite IX S1setae arising slightly anterior to line joining bases of S2 setae; sternites III–VII each with small transverse glandular area, discal setae arising laterally.

Breeding: Polyphagous in the flowers of a range of plants, this species seems particularly associated with strongly scented flowers, such as those of Gardenia species , in common with the related species T. orientalis and T. extensicornis .

Distribution: Widespread in South East Asia, from Java and Taiwan to East Timur, but also recorded from Greece ( Mound & Collins, 2000), this species has been found widely in northern Australian coastal regions between northern New South Wales and Western Australia, north from Broome. In Australia it has usually been taken in low numbers, but a large population involving both sexes and larvae was taken from mango flowers at Kununurra on the Ord River.

Relationships: The synonymy indicated above was given by Mound and Collins (2000) after studying variation in specimens from many localities. T. parvispinus is closely related to T. orientalis , but that has the forewing uniformly shaded not pale at the base, and the metanotal sculptured reticles with more pronounced internal markings.

Figures

FIGURES 72–83. Thrips species. T. palmi 72–74: (72) Head & pronotum; (73) Meso­metanota; (74) Tergites VI–VIII. T. parvispinus 75–76: (75) Meso­metanota; (76) Sternites V–VII. T. phormiicola 77–79: (77) Head & pronotum; (78) Meso­metanota; (79) sternites II–III. T. seticollis 80–83: (80) Meso­metanota; (81) Pronotum; (82) Tergites VI–VIII; (83) fore tarsus.