Wingless female
Head, pronotum & fore legs
Fore tarsus & tibia
Head & pronotum
Prosternites
Antenna
Meso & metanota, pelta & tergite II
Antenna
Pelta
Abdominal tergite
Abdominal segments IX–X (tube)
Female fully winged or wingless. Body and legs brown, tarsi and apices of tibiae yellow; antennal segment III brown, IV–VI yellow in basal half; fore wings pale. Antennae 8-segmented; segment III with 1 sense cone, IV with 2 sense cones; segment VII with broad pedicel. Head longer than wide, eyes large and prolonged posteriorly on ventral surface; postocular setae small, wide apart; maxillary stylets retracted to postocular setae, about one fifth of head width apart. Pronotum with only 2 pairs of major setae, epimerals weakly capitate, posteroangulars blunt at apex; prosternal basantra not present. Fore tarsus with small sharply pointed tooth. Metanotum without sculpture. Fore wings parallel sided, without duplicated cilia. Tergal wing-retaining setae weak; tergite IX setae S1 and S2 weakly capitate, shorter than basal width of tube.
There are eight species listed under the genus Cephalothrips from various parts of the world, Europe, Morocco, Kyrgystan, Sichuan (China), South Africa, Cuba and California. C. monilicornis is distinguished from most of these by having the eyes prolonged on the ventral surface of the head. The only other Phlaeothripidae in Britain that are associated with grasses are Bolothrips dentipes and three species of Haplothrips.
Breeding at the base of grasses and apparently feeding on leaf tissues.
In Britain taken infrequently but widely between Kent and northern Scotland, although mostly from southern England (Mound et al., 1976). Recorded widely across Europe, its range extending south east to Iran, but also recorded from North America (Hoddle et al., 2012).
PHLAEOTHRIPIDAE - PHLAEOTHRIPINAE
Cephalothrips monilicornis (Reuter)
Phloeothrips monilicornis Reuter, 1880: 21
Mound LA, Morison GD, Pitkin BR & Palmer JM (1976) Thysanoptera. Handbooks for the Identification of British Insects 1 (11): 1–79.
Hoddle MS, Mound LA, Paris DL (2012) Thrips of California2012. CBIT Publishing, Queensland. http://keys.lucidcentral.org/keys/v3/thrips_of_california/Thrips_of_California.html