Cryptothrips nigripesCryptothrips nigripesFemales fully winged or micropterous, males micropterous. Body, legs and antennae dark brown, antennal segment III largely yellow; fore wings pale. Antennae 8-segmented, segment III with 2 sense cones, IV with 3 sense cones; VIII slightly narrowed to base. Head longer than wide, cheeks straight and almost parallel; postocular setae long and bluntly pointed, arising behind inner margins of eyes; compound eyes smaller ventrally than dorsally; maxillary stylets very broad, retracted to eyes, close together medially. Pronotum without sculpture medially; with 5 pairs of bluntly pointed major setae, anteromarginal setae smaller than other setae; prosternal basantra present, mesopresternum transverse. Fore tarsal tooth absent. Metanotum with no sculpture medially. Fore wing parallel-sided with about 20 duplicated cilia. Abdominal tergite I, the pelta, with lateral wings in macropterae but broadly triangular in micropterae; tergites III–VI each with one pair of curved wing-retaining setae; tergite IX setae S1 weakly bluntly pointed, more than half as long as tube.
Male similar to female, postocular setae longer, fore tarsal tooth large; tergite IX setae S2 as long as S1; sternite VIII without a pore plate.
Although 12 species from various parts of the world are listed in the genus Cryptothrips, several of these are known only from old descriptions and are possibly not even members of the Idolothripinae. The only other member of the genus in Europe, angustus, is known only from its description (Mound & Palmer, 1983). The only other nominal member of the genus that can be clearly recognised as congeneric with nigripes is the North American species carbonarius; two other species from North America, rectangularis and sordidatus, are not satisfactorily distinguished from nigripes (Mound & Walker, 1986). In contrast to the other species of Idolothripinae in Britain, C. nigripes has the two maxillary stylets located close together medially and the tube lacks any lateral setae.
Breeding on dead branches of trees, and feeding on the spores of unidentified fungi.
Taken infrequently in Britain, between Surrey and northern Scotland (though it has not been recorded from Wales) (Mound et al., 1976), but otherwise widely recorded across Europe, including the Canary Islands (Berzosa, 2000).
PHLAEOTHRIPIDAE - IDOLOTHRIPINAE
Cryptothrips nigripes (Reuter)
Phloeothrips nigripes Reuter, 1880: 11
Cryptothrips lata Uzel, 1895: 230
Cryptothrips major Bagnall, 1911: 60
Cryptothrips latus f. breviceps Maltbaek, 1929: 372
Cryptothrips williamsi Bagnall, 1933: 120
Cryptothrips nigripes insularis Titschack, 1964: 51
Cryptothrips nigripes phariacus Titschack, 1965: 147
Berzosa J (2000) Los tisanópteros (Insecta, Thysanoptera) de las Islas Canarias. Distribución geográfica, plantas hospedantes y referencias bibliográficas. Boletin Real Sociedad Espanola Historia Natural Seccion Biologica 96 (1-2): 93–112.
Mound LA, Morison GD, Pitkin BR & Palmer JM (1976) Thysanoptera. Handbooks for the Identification of British Insects 1 (11): 1–79.
Mound LA & Palmer JM (1983) The generic and tribal classification of spore-feeding Thysanoptera (Phlaeothripidae: Idolothripinae). Bulletin of the British Museum (Natural History). Entomology 46: 1–174.
Mound LA & Walker AK (1986) Tubulifera (Insecta: Thysanoptera). Fauna of New Zealand 10: 1–140.
