Euryaplothrips Ramakrishna & Margabandhu, 1931

Mound, Laurence A., 2024, New generic synonyms amongst Thysanoptera Phlaeothripinae listed from Europe and the Mediterranean area, Zootaxa 5428 (1), pp. 146-150 : 149

Euryaplothrips Ramakrishna & Margabandhu

( Figs 13–15 )

Euryaplothrips Ramakrishna & Margabandhu, 1931: 1037 .

Type species Euryaplothrips crassus Ramakrishna & Margabandhu , by monotypy.

The single species placed in this genus was described from Coimbatore in southern India, taken in the flowering heads of a species of Amaranthus . The original authors distinguished this genus from Haplothrips (Trybomiella) by the head being broader than long, a condition that is emphasised by the older slide-mounted specimens being contracted and slightly crushed ( Fig. 13 ). Subsequently, Priesner (1965) further distinguished the genus because the outer apex of the fore femora is “somewhat reflexed and carinate”. Neither of these character states provides a robust generic distinction. The head of the holotype of Haplothrips gomphrenae Mound & Minaei (2007) from northern Australia is no longer than wide, although in many of the paratypes the head is clearly longer than wide. The fore femoral apex in this species is also thickened, protruding slightly on the external margin, and the host plant is also a member of the Amaranthaceae . There are specimens of Euryaplothrips crassus in the Senckenberg Museum from Yemen, Ethiopia and the Cape Verde islands, and in the Natural History Museum, London, there are specimens of this species from plants of Aerva ( Amaranthaceae ) in India (Coimbatore & Madras), Pakistan (near Peshawar), Sudan (Wad Medani) and Egypt (Kom Ombo). Most of the available specimens are dark and uncleared, but in one female from Aerva at Madras the basantra are visible ( Fig. 14 ). Kaomud Tyagi of Kolkata, India kindly confirmed the presence of the following character states on more recent specimens that are available to her: prosternal basantra present; metathoracic sternopleural sutures absent. These two conditions are typical of members of the genus Haplothrips . Since no other character states have been found to distinguish this genus, Euryaplothrips is here considered a new synonym of the genus Haplothrips Amyot & Serville. The species Haplothrips crassus (Ramakrishna & Margabandhu) comb.n. is thus interpreted as a rather large but short-headed species of the Haplothrips (Trybomiella) species group.

Figures

FIGURES 8–16. European problem genera. Bebelothrips flavicinctus 8–10: (8) head; (9) tergites IX–X; (10) antenna. (11) Brachythrips flavicornis holotype. (12) Brachythrips dirghavadana head and pronotum. Euryaplothrips crassus 13–15: (13) head and pronotum; (14) prosternites; (15) antenna. (16) Haplothrips angusticornis meso & metanota – arrows indicate tegula.