Distinguishing features

Female fully winged. Body brown; head darker, antennal segment III paler; tarsi and apices of fore tibiae yellow; fore wings pale except at extreme base; sub-basal setae dark. Head longer than wide, faintly sculptured; ocelli well developed; compound eyes larger dorsally than ventrally; postocular setae blunt, arising wide apart; maxillary stylets retracted to compound eyes, close together; maxillary bridge short, stout. Antennae 8-segmented; segment III with 2 sense cones, IV with 4 sense cones. Pronotum transverse; epimeral and posteroangular setae stout, blunt; anteromarginal and anteroangular setae smaller, pointed; midlateral setae scarcely longer than discal setae; basantra present. Mesopresternum reduced to 2 lateral triangles; metathoracic sternopleural sutures absent. Fore tarsal tooth very small, sometimes obscured. Fore wings strongly constricted medially, without duplicated cilia but with 3 blunt major sub-basal setae arising close together. Pelta triangular, faintly reticulate; tergites II–VII with sigmoid wing-retaining setae; tergite IX posteromarginal setae S1 and S2 blunt; tube shorter than head.
Males are unknown

Related species

The genus Haplothrips comprises 240 described species worldwide, of which only four are recorded from New Zealand, and none of these seems to be endemic. The fore wings of H. salicorniae are broad and lack duplicated cilia, a condition typical of the subgenus Trybomiella. However, H. salicorniae is unlike any other member of that sub-genus in having the maxillary stylets deeply retracted into the head, and closely approximated with a narrow bridge.

Biological data

This species feeds and breeds on species of Salicornia and related genera that grow on coastal mudflats and salt marshes.

Distribution data

Found widely across Australia, this species is probably more widespread in New Zealand than the available records suggest (NN, KA).

Family name

PHLAEOTHRIPIDAE, PHLAEOTHRIPINAE

Species name

Haplothrips (Trybomiella) salicorniae Mound & Walker

Original name and synonyms

Haplothrips (Trybomiella) salicorniae Mound & Walker, 1986: 54

References

Mound LA & Minaei K (2007) Australian insects of the Haplothrips lineage (Thysanoptera – Phlaeothripinae). Journal of Natural History 41: 2919–2978.

Mound LA & Walker AK (1986) Tubulifera (Insecta: Thysanoptera). Fauna of New Zealand 10: 1–140.