Craspedothrips xanthocerus (Hood)

Mound, L. A., Masumoto, M. & Okajima, S., 2012, The Palaeotropical genus Craspedothrips, with new species from Africa and Malaysia (Thysanoptera, Thripinae), Zootaxa 3478, pp. 49-61 : 60

Craspedothrips xanthocerus (Hood)

( Figs 30–33 )

Physothrips xanthocerus Hood, 1916: 131

Plesiopsothrips carvalhoi Bournier 1974: 156 . syn.n.

The original descriptions of both xanthocerus and carvalhoi are well illustrated. The single female from Uganda on which xanthocerus was based has been examined (in USNM), but the type material of carvalhoi from Angola is not in the Paris Museum and has not been studied. Despite that, there is little doubt about the identity of this species and the above synonymy is based on a long series of xanthocerus from Coffea robusta in Angola (in BMNH). Also the following have been studied (in BMNH): Uganda - a long series from the underside of leaves of Coffea arabica ; Tanzania —a series from coffee leaves in association with Hemileia vastatrix ; Kenya — three females in association with Hemileia vastatrix at the coffee research station, Kisii. The association of both xanthocerus and antennatus with this coffee fungus remains unclear, whether it involves feeding on the spores or feeding on damaged leaf tissues as is known for some Panchaetothripinae species. Antennal segments III–VI ( Fig. 33 ) are unusually pale in xanthocerus , the pronotal discal area lacks setae and sculpture lines, the metascutum is weakly sculptured ( Fig. 31 ), and on sternite VII setae S2 arise in front of the posterior margin by a distance equal to about twice the diameter of their basal pores. This species shares with ghesquierei the unusual condition of lacking a pair of setae in front of the first ocellus.

Figures

FIGURES 29–33. Craspedothrips species. (29) C. reticulatus male head and antennae. C. xanthocerus 30–33: (30) head and thorax; (31) meso- and meta-nota; (32) tergites VI–X; (33) antenna, head and pronotum.