Teuchothrips flavitibia (Moulton) Mound, 2020

Mound, Laurence, 2020, Taxonomic confusion among gall-thrips and host-plants, with three new combinations from the genus Austrothrips (Thysanoptera, Phlaeothripidae), Zootaxa 4755 (3), pp. 587-592 : 590

Teuchothrips flavitibia (Moulton) comb.n.

( Figs 7–9 )

Austrothrips flavitibia Moulton, 1940: 261

Described from New Guinea as taken from leaf galls on an unidentified plant, the original specimens of this species have now been re-examined. Both sexes have one sense cone on antennal segment III and three sense cones on segment IV, and these sense cones are long and slender, each extending to the mid-point of the succeeding segment. The prosternal basantra are absent and the mesopresternum is reduced to a pair of lateral triangles. These character states indicate that flavitibia is a member of the Liothrips -lineage in the Phlaeothripinae, and thus unrelated to the fungus-feeding verae . The fore tarsus of the female lacks a tarsal tooth, but the male has a large fore tarsal tooth with the fore femora rather swollen. The head, pronotum, metascutum and lateral thirds of the tergites are distinctly reticulate ( Figs 7–9 ). Tergite IX setae S1 and S2 are capitate in both sexes, with S1 a little more than half as long as the tube, but S 2 in males is scarcely longer than the basal width of the tube. The male has no pore plate on sternite eight. This species is closely similar to several undescribed species in the genus Teuchothrips that are known from northern Australia ( Mound 2008), and is here transferred to that genus.

Specimens studied. Holotype female, New Guinea, Koitaki, from galls on creeper, 28.xii.1928, in Bishop Museum, Hawaii. Paratypes, 4 females, 4 males taken with holotype, in California Academy of Sciences.

Figures

FIGURES 7–15. Species transferred from Austrothrips. Teuchothrips flavitibia 7–9: (7) holotype head and pronotum; (8) holotype meso and metanotum; (9) paratype pelta and tergite II. Solomonthrips vanuaensis holotype 10–15: (10) head; (11) antenna; (12) pronotum; (13) tergites VII–X; (14) sternites VII–IX; (15) pelta and tergite I.