Neoheliothrips sylvanus (Faure) Faure, 2015

Nakahara, Steve, O’Donnell, Cheryle A. & Mound, Laurence A., 2015, Heliothrips haemorrhoidalis and its relatives, with one new species and one new genus (Thysanoptera: Thripidae), Zootaxa 4021 (4), pp. 578-584 : 583

Neoheliothrips sylvanus (Faure) comb.n.

( Figs 7 , 10–12 )

Described in 1933 as a species of Heliothrips , the legs of both sexes are uniformly dark brown, and the fore wing and scale are dark at the base. The males have pore plates on sternites III–VII decreasing in size from broadly oval and about 80 microns wide on III, to narrowly oval and 60 microns on VII. This thrips is considered a pest on several fruit crops in South Africa, including table grapes and persimmons ( Allsopp 2009), and the illustrations presented here are based on specimens from these crops. The species is recorded by zur Strassen (2006) from the following Provinces of South Africa-Limpopo, KwaZulu-Natal, East Cape and West Cape.

Figures

FIGURES 1 – 7. Heliothrips species, mesonotum, metanotum and tergite I, 1 – 3: (1) haemorrhoidalis; (2) similis sp. n.; (3) zucchi. Antennae, 4 – 7: (4) haemorrhoidalis; (5) similis sp. n.; (6) zucchi; (7) Neoheliothrips sylvanus comb. n. (arrows indicate paired minute pores on first abdominal tergite).

FIGURES 10 – 13. Neoheliothrips sylvanus comb. n. 10 – 12: (10) head and thorax; (11) tergites V – VI; (12) fore wing; (13) Heliothrips haemorrhoidalis fore wing.