Cryptothrips sordidatus
Recognition data
Distinguishing features
Both sexes either long or short winged. Body and legs blackish brown; antennal segment III dark with pedicel yellow; major setae and fore wing pale. Head longer than wide, cheeks parallel, eyes relatively small; postocular setae longer than dorsal length of eye, postocellar setae considerably shorter; maxillary stylets broad, retracted to eyes and close together medially in head. Antennae 8-segmented; segment III with 2 sensoria, IV with 3 sensoria; segment VIII slender and narrowed to base. Pronotum with 5 pairs of softly pointed major setae; epimeral sutures complete; basantra small, ferna transverse, mesopresternum slender medially. Fore tarsi with no tooth. Metanotum medially with weak sculpture. Fore wings parallel sided, with about 18 duplicated cilia. Pelta broad; tergites each with only one pair of sigmoid wing-retaining setae; tergite IX setae finely acute, as long as tube.
Males varying in size, large male with fore femora swollen, fore tarsus with prominent tooth.
Related and similar species
Although 12 species are listed in Cryptothrips six of the older names involved cannot at present be applied to any known species. Of the other six species, three are from North America, one from Europe, and one each from Australia and New Zealand. The three species recorded from California are similar in general appearance, and currently there is no reliable distinction between them, either structural or biological. C. sordidatus was described as having the postocellar setae "about as long as eye diameter", and the third antennal segment dark, although Cott (1956: 37) states that the postocellar setae are longer than the eye length. There is a possibility that this species and C. rectangularis, and even C. carbonarius, all represent the same species as the northern European C. nigripes (Reuter).
Taxonomic data
Current valid name
Cryptothrips sordidatus Hood
Original name and synonyms
- Cryptothrips sordidatus Hood, 1927: 199
Family placement
Phlaeothripidae, Idolothripinae
Biological data
Life history
Apparently breeding on dead leaves and branches.
Host plants
Spores of unidentified fungi.
Tospoviruses vectored
None
Crop damage
None
Distribution data
Area of origin
Western USA.
Distribution
California.