Hoplothrips flavipes (Bagnall)

Mound, Laurence A., 2017, Intra-specific structural variation among Hawaiian Hoplothrips (Thysanoptera, Phlaeothripidae), with ten new synonymies and one new species, ZooKeys 722, pp. 137-152 : 141

Hoplothrips flavipes (Bagnall)

Dolerothrips flavipes Bagnall, 1910: 685.

Remarks.

This species was based on "several specimens … in alcohol" from Maui but with no date of collection; also "numerous specimens" (presumably dry and carded) from Maui on Mt. Haleakala in 1896. In the BMNH, only 1 male and 2 female micropterae remain of this species; these were slide mounted by Bagnall presumably from the series in alcohol, but without data apart from Maui. Similar specimens were sent to Hood (1939: 587) who claimed that the yellow legs were the result of storage in alcohol, and placed japonicus and major as synonyms of flavipes . Certainly flavipes is a member of the northern hemisphere fungi species-complex to which japonicus and major (a synonym of karnyi ) belong. These species share the character states of a rather slender antennal segment VIII, an extra pair of discal setae on the metanotum, and the head with prominent cheek setae. However, because the coxae of the available flavipes specimens are also clear yellow, it is possible that the leg colour may be natural and not due to storage in ethanol. The identity and relationships of these specimens thus remain equivocal. They share many character states with H. flavafemora Okajima from southern Japan, but the available specimens are too poorly preserved to be sure that these two represent a single species. Moreover, if it were true that the pale legs of the flavipes specimens is due to storage in alcohol, then these specimens could not be distinguished from dubius . The male paralectotype is large, and laterally on sternites III–VII are extensive paired areas of iridescent reticulation (Fig. 22), and sternite VIII has a broad pore plate with a median length of about 35 microns. The female paralectotype is in particularly poor condition, but the lectotype female mounted onto a slide with the male has the lateral setae on tergites III–IV short, scarcely half as long as the tergite median length.