Bolacothrips jordaniBolacothrips jordaniBoth sexes either fully winged or apterous. Body and legs yellow, abdominal tergite X brown; antennal segment VII and distal half of VI light brown; fore wings pale. Antennae 7-segmented; segments III–IV each with short simple sense cone; VII short. Head with two pairs of ocellar setae; pair III long, arising outside ocellar triangle; aptera with no ocelli; postocular setae pair II posterior to I, pair IV longest; maxillary palps 3-segmented. Pronotum with 2 pairs of long posteroangular setae; posterior margin with 3 pairs of setae; anterior margin with one pair of setae 3 times as long as discal setae. Metanotum with transverse sculpture lines, median setae well behind anterior margin, campaniform sensilla absent. Abdominal tergite II with 3 lateral marginal setae; aptera with tergites transversly reticulate, median setae 0.5 as long as median length of tergite, campaniform sensilla near posterior margin; tergite VIII of aptera with paired ctenidia weakly developed, macroptera with ctenidia on VII–VIII, on VIII posteromesad to spiracles; tergite VIII posteromarginal comb absent medially, with a few small teeth laterally; pleurotergites without discal setae. Sternites III-VII each with about 6 discal setae.
Male smaller than female; sternites III–VII with transverse pore plate.
Bolacothrips comprises 13 grass-living species, mainly from Asia (Mound, 2011b), but with this one species widespread in Europe (zur Strassen, 2003). The genus is a member of the Thrips genus-group, and the species differ from members of the genus Thrips in having the sense cones simple on antennal segments III and IV.
Feeding and breeding on the leaves of its host plants, but presumably restricted to Poaceae. It is recorded across Europe from several genera in this family.
Recorded only three times in England, once each in Kent, Devon and Shropshire (Mound et al., 1976), but widespread in Western and Central Europe southwards from Finland.
THRIPIDAE - THRIPINAE
Bolacothrips jordani Uzel
Bolacothrips jordani Uzel, 1895: 212
Thrips incompletus Oettingen, 1942: 4
Mound LA (2011b) Grass-dependent Thysanoptera of the family Thripidae from Australia. Zootaxa 3064: 1–40.
Mound LA, Morison GD, Pitkin BR & Palmer JM (1976) Thysanoptera. Handbooks for the Identification of British Insects 1 (11): 1–79.
zur Strassen R (2003) Die terebranten Thysanopteren Europas und des Mittelmeer-Gebietes. Die Tierwelt Deutschlands 74: 1-271.
