Haplothrips distinguendusHaplothrips distinguendusBoth sexes fully winged. Body and legs brown to dark brown, fore tarsi yellow, antennal segment III yellowish-brown, IV–VI yellow at base; fore wing pale with margins weakly shaded and base dark; major setae pale. Antennae 8-segmented, segment III with 2 stout, pointed sense cones, IV with 4 similar sense cones; VIII not narrowed to base. Head longer than wide; maxillary stylets about 0.5 of head width apart, retracted to postocular setae, maxillary bridge complete; postocular setae with softly pointed apices, scarcely 0.7 as long as dorsal length of compound eye. Pronotum with 5 pairs of major setae with softly pointed apices; epimeral sutures complete; prosternal basantra present, mesopresternum complete. Fore tarsus with small tooth. Fore wing constricted medially, with about 12 duplicated cilia, sub-basal setae with pointed apices. Tergite IX setae S1 softly pointed, about 0.5 as long as tube.
Male with no pore plate on sternite VIII; fore tarsal tooth present; tergite IX setae S2 short and stout; aedeagus apex abruptly expanded.
The genus Haplothrips is one of the three most species-rich genera of Thysanoptera, and currently includes about 245 species worldwide. Most of these species come from the Holarctic or the Old World tropics, with 80 listed from Europe and 14 from Britain. No Haplothrips species is known to be endemic to the Neotropics, although a few are native to southern South America (Mound & Zapater, 2003). Haplothrips species are largely phytophagous, particularly associated with the flowers of Asteraceae and Poaceae, but some are predatory (Mound & Minaei, 2007). Haplothrips distinguendus is one of the few members of this genus in Britain with five pairs of long major setae on the pronotum, and antennal segment III with two sense cones. It differs from senecionis in the more pointed major setae, the wider separation of the maxillary stylets, the complete mesopresternum, and the expanded apex to the aedeagus.
Breeding in the flowers of various Asteraceae, particularly species of Carduus and Cirsium, but also Scrophularia [Scrophulariaceae] and Knautia [Dipsacaceae].
In Britain, recorded primarily from southern England and Wales (Mound et al., 1976), but also from Askham Bog, York (Collins, 2006). Widely distributed across Europe and into Asia including Iran (Minaei & Mound, 2008), and also recorded from North Africa.
PHLAEOTHRIPIDAE - PHLAEOTHRIPINAE
Haplothrips distinguendus (Uzel)
Anthothrips distinguenda Uzel, 1895: 239
Anthothrips crassus Karny, 1907: 50
Haplothrips plurisetosus Knechtel, 1948: 482
Collins DW (2006) Odontothrips confusus Priesner (Thysanoptera: Thripidae) new to Britain and recent records of other British thrips. British Journal of Entomology and Natural History 19: 145–156.
Minaei K & Mound LA (2008) The Thysanoptera Haplothripini (Phlaeothripidae) of Iran. Journal of Natural History 42: 2617–2658.
Mound LA & Minaei K (2007) Australian insects of the Haplothrips lineage (Thysanoptera – Phlaeothripinae). Journal of Natural History 41: 2919–2978.
Mound LA, Morison GD, Pitkin BR & Palmer JM (1976) Thysanoptera. Handbooks for the Identification of British Insects 1 (11): 1–79.
Mound LA & Zapater MC (2003) South American Haplothrips species (Thysanoptera, Phlaeothripidae), with a new species of biological control interest to Australia against weedy Heliotropium amplexicaule (Boraginaceae). Neotropical Entomology 32: 437–442.
