Distinguishing features

Female fully winged. Body and legs yellow, antennal segments V–VI brown distally, fore wing pale with dark bands at base and medially. Antennae 8-segmented; VIII slender, more than 6 times as long as wide; segments III–IV each with a long forked sense cone. Head with ocellar setae pair I not present, pair III small and arising within ocellar triangle. Pronotum with 2 pairs of small but prominent posteroangular setae, external pair no longer than width of antennal segment III. Metanotum weakly reticulate, median setae small, well behind anterior margin. Fore wing slender, first vein with 3 setae on distal half, second vein with 3 or 4 setae; some cilia wavy on posterior margin. Tergites with weak transverse sculpture medially, posterior margin with complete craspedum; tergite VIII with plastron-like sculpture extending around spiracle to antecostal ridge. Sternites III–VI with large lobed marginal craspedum.
Male not known.

Related species

The genus Chaetanaphothrips currently includes 20 species, mostly from southeastern Asia (Nonaka & Okajima, 1992), but with three that have become widely distributed around the world. Two of these, leeuweni and signipennis, have only a single pair of pronotal posteroangular setae, whereas orchidii has two pairs of such setae (Mound & Marullo, 1996).

Biological data

Polyphagous, found breeding on plant species in unrelated families. In the past, it has been considered to be a minor pest, of bananas in the Neotropics, citrus fruits in Florida, and orchids in temperate greenhouses (Pitkin, 1977; Mound & Marullo, 1996). Very large populations were found inducing rolled leaves of Commelina cyanea [Commelinaceae] on Norfolk Island, Australia (Mound & Wells, 2015).

Distribution data

Restricted to greenhouses in Britain, usually heated botanical collections, with small breeding populations likely to be present in the country at any given time. Widely dispersed throughout tropical and subtropical countries.

Family name

THRIPIDAE - THRIPINAE

Species name

Chaetanaphothrips orchidii (Moulton)

Original name and synonyms

Euthrips orchidii Moulton, 1907: 52
Euthrips marginemtorquens Karny, 1914: 362

References

Mound LA & Marullo R (1996) The Thrips of Central and South America: An Introduction. Memoirs on Entomology, International 6: 1–488.

Mound LA & Wells A (2015) Endemics and adventives: Thysanoptera (Insecta) biodiversity of Norfolk, a tiny Pacific Island. Zootaxa 3964 (2): 183–210.

Nonaka T & Okajima S (1992) Descriptions of seven new species of the genus Chaetanaphothrips Priesner (Thysanoptera, Thripidae) from East Asia. Japanese Journal of Entomology 60 (2): 433–447.

Pitkin B. R. (1977) A revision of the genus Chaetanaphothrips Priesner (Thysanoptera: Thripidae). Bulletin of Entomological Research 67: 599–605.

Thrips of the British Isles