Bolothrips dentipesBolothrips dentipesBoth sexes apterous. Body, legs and antennae brown, tarsi and fore tibiae, also bases and apices of mid and hind tibiae yellowish, antennal segment III largely dull yellow. Antennae 8-segmented, segment III with 2 sense cones, IV with 3 sense cones; VIII narrowed to base. Head longer than wide, projecting in front of eyes, constricted at base; compound eyes longer on ventral surface than on dorsal; postocular setae long and pointed, arising between inner margin of eyes; maxillary stylets broad, retracted to postocular setae, wide apart and arranged into V-shape. Pronotum without sculpture medially; with 4 pairs of bluntly pointed major setae, anteromarginal setae small; prosternal basantra present, mesopresternum boat-shaped. Fore tarsal tooth absent. Metanotum weakly reticulate. Abdominal tergite I, the pelta, broadly rounded, tergites II–VII without curved wing-retaining setae, lateral tergal setae not elongate; tergite IX setae S1 pointed, more than half as long as tube.
Male similar to female, fore tarsal tooth well-developed; tergite IX setae S2 as long as S1; sternite VIII without a pore plate.
The genus Bolothrips includes 17 species, mainly from the northern hemisphere including four from North America, but with three species from South Africa. There are two other species of this genus in northern Europe in which the compound eyes are prolonged ventrally, but neither bicolor nor cingulatus are uniformly dark in colour like dentipes (Mound, 1974). In comparison to the other species of Idolothripinae in Britain, B. dentipes has a comparatively short head, and the maxillary stylets wide apart and arranged in a V-shape.
Breeding at the base of grasses and sedges in damp areas, and feeding on the spores of unidentified fungi on the stems of Carex [Cyperaceae], Juncus [Juncaceae] and Spartina [Poaceae].
Locally common in southern England, and also recorded from County Dublin in the Republic of Ireland (Mound et al., 1976; O'Connor, 2008), this species is widespread across Europe south of Norway and Finland, and has also been found in North America (Stannard, 1968).
PHLAEOTHRIPIDAE - IDOLOTHRIPINAE
Bolothrips dentipes (Reuter)
Phloeothrips dentipes Reuter, 1880: 12
Cryptothrips bagnalli Karny, 1916: 94
Mound LA (1974) The Nesothrips complex of spore-feeding Thysanoptera (Phlaeothripidae: Idolothripinae). Bulletin of the British Museum (Natural History). Entomology 31: 109–188.
Mound LA, Morison GD, Pitkin BR & Palmer JM (1976) Thysanoptera. Handbooks for the Identification of British Insects 1 (11): 1–79.
O’Connor JP (2008) A review of the Irish thrips (Thysanoptera). Irish Naturalists’ Journal 29: 20–24.
Stannard LJ (1968) The thrips, or Thysanoptera, of Illinois. Bulletin of the Illinois Natural History Survey 29: 213–552.
