Adraneothrips ephippium

Recognition data

Distinguishing features

Female fully winged. Body brightly tri-colored, brown, yellow and with red internal pigment. Head and thorax brown, also abdominal segments III–V and VIII–X; abdominal segment II yellow, VI–VII brownish yellow; tarsi yellow, midtibiae largely brown, hind tibiae washed with brown medially; antennal segments III–VI bicolored yellow and dark brown; fore wing with brown area sub-basally. Head slightly longer than wide, wider across cheeks than across eyes, projecting slightly in front of eyes; postocular setae capitate, arising posterior to inner margin of eyes; eyes prolonged slightly to posterior on ventral surface; maxillary stylets retracted to postocular setae, about one fifth of head width apart. Antennae 8-segmented; segment III with 2 sensoria, IV with 4 sensoria. Pronotum with 5 pairs of major setae capitate. Fore tarsus without tooth. Fore wing parallel sided, with four duplicated cilia. Pelta shaped like tall hat, with very slender brim and pair of campaniform sensilla. Tergites II–VII with 2 pairs of sigmoid wing-retaining setae; tergite IX setae S1 broadly blunt, shorter than tube.

Related and similar species

The descriptive notes given here for A. ephippium are based on two specimens from San Diego County in the collection at UC Riverside. These specimens are very similar to A. alajuela according to the key to Central and South American species in Mound & Marullo (1996). The genus Adraneothrips currently includes 59 species, all but three of which are from the Americas, mainly from tropical areas. Four species are listed from California. Of these, Stannard (1956) described A. faustus on one short-winged male, A. ephippium on one fully winged female, and A. vacuus on six wingless individuals; A. saturatus Cott was described on about 20 wingless individuals. Studies on this genus must therefore await more extensive field sampling to gain some understanding of variation within and between species.

Taxonomic data

Current valid name

Adraneothrips ephippium Stannard

Original name and synonyms

• Adraneothrips ephippium Stannard, 1956: 24

Family placement

Phlaeothripidae, Phlaeothripinae

Biological data

Life history

Breeding in leaf litter

Host plants

Feeding on fungal hyphae in leaf litter

Tospoviruses vectored

None

Crop damage

None

Distribution data

Area of origin

Western USA

Distribution

California