Mecynothrips, Bagnall, 1908

Eow, L. X., Mound, L. A. & Ng, Y. F., 2011, Genera of Spore-Feeding Thysanoptera from Southeast Asia (Phlaeothripidae, Idolothripinae), with a species checklist from Peninsular Malaysia, Zootaxa 2928 (1), pp. 1-19 : 17

Mecynothrips

This genus of 14 large-bodied species effectively replaces Elaphrothrips East of Wallace’s Line. Because of size variation and allometry among males there are also 14 species-group names placed into synonymy. M. simplex Bagnall was described from Philippines, but is widespread from there to Sri Lanka and India, including Malaysia, Java, and Borneo. In contrast, most of the other 13 species are known only from single samples and, despite the key to species provided by Palmer & Mound (1978), a full understanding of the variation among these species has yet to be established. It is likely that further study will indicate more synonymy.