Distinguishing features

Both sexes fully winged. Body and legs brown, pronotum with yellow markings, hind tarsi and antennal segments III–V yellow; fore wing banded, dark at base and apex and with two dark and three white transverse bands. Antennae 8-segmented but segment VI with a partial suture producing a 9-segmented condition; segments III–IV each with a forked sense cone. Head and pronotum with no long setae; maxillary palps 2-segmented. Metanotum with elongate reticulation, median pair of setae small and arising medially. Metathoracic furca lyre-shaped, extending into mesothorax. Tarsi all 1-segmented. Fore wing apex bluntly rounded, antero-marginal cilia arising ventrally behind apparent margin, veinal setae minute, postero-marginal cilia straight. Abdominal tergites II–VIII median setae long and close together; lateral thirds of tergites with complex sculpture; VIII with short postero-marginal comb of microtrichia. Sternites III–VII with three pairs of small postero-marginal setae

Related species

There are about 55 species listed in the genus Dendrothrips, of which only four are known from Britain, with a further five from elsewhere in Europe. Most species in this genus are known from Africa, Asia and Australia. They all have the metathoracic furca elongate and "lyre-shaped", as do other members of the Dendrothripinae (Mound & Tree, 2016). However, in Dendrothrips species the fore wing is unusual with the antero-marginal cilia arising ventrally and well-behind the apparent anterior margin. Although similar to degeeri in having only minute pronotal posteroangular setae, ornatus is distinctive in having banded fore wings.

Biological data

Feeding, breeding and pupating on the leaves of privet hedges, Ligustrum (Oleaceae), but also associated with leaves of Syringa (Oleaceae).

Distribution data

Locally common in England but has not been recorded north of Buckinghamshire (Mound et al., 1976). This species is widespread in Europe, and has been reported from Asiatic Russia and Inner Mongolia (zur Strassen, 2003). It has also been introduced into parts of North America, including Illinois and Iowa (Stannard, 1968).

Family name

THRIPIDAE - DENDROTHRIPINAE

Species name

Dendrothrips ornatus (Jablonowski)

Original name and synonyms

Thrips ornatus Jablonowski, 1894: 93
Dendrothrips tiliae Uzel, 1895: 160
Dendrothrips ornatus f. adusta Priesner, 1926: 175
Dendrothrips schillei Bagnall, 1927: 568

References

Mound LA, Morison GD, Pitkin BR & Palmer JM (1976) Thysanoptera. Handbooks for the Identification of British Insects 1 (11): 1–79.

Mound LA & Tree DJ (2016) Genera of the leaf-feeding Dendrothripinae (Thysanoptera, Thripidae), with new species from Australia and Sulawesi, Indonesia. Zootaxa 4109 (5): 569–582.

Stannard LJ (1968) The thrips, or Thysanoptera, of Illinois. Bulletin of the Illinois Natural History Survey 29: 213–552.

zur Strassen R (2003) Die terebranten Thysanopteren Europas und des Mittelmeer-Gebietes. Die Tierwelt Deutschlands 74: 1–271.

Thrips of the British Isles