Haplothrips marrubiicolaHaplothrips marrubiicolaBoth sexes fully winged. Body brown to dark brown, fore tarsi and fore tibiae largely yellow, antennal segment III yellowish-brown, IV and V sometimes pale at base; fore wing pale with base dark; major setae pale. Antennae 8-segmented, segment III with 2 slender sense cones, IV with 4 slender sense cones; VIII not narrowed at base. Head longer than wide; maxillary stylets less than one third of head width apart, retracted to postocular setae, maxillary bridge complete; postocular setae acute, almost 1.5 times as long as dorsal length of compound eye. Pronotum with 5 pairs of long, softly pointed major setae; epimeral sutures complete; prosternal basantra present, mesopresternum eroded to paired lateral triangles. Fore wing constricted medially, with about 9 duplicated cilia, sub-basal setae long and softly pointed. Tergite IX setae S1 pointed, more than half as long as tube.
Male with no pore plate on sternite VIII; fore tarsal tooth present; tergite IX setae S2 short and stout.
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 marrubiicola is unusual within the genus in Britain in having the postocular setae on the head considerably longer than the dorsal length of the eyes, and it also has five pairs of long major setae on the pronotum.
Presumably breeding in the flowers of its host plant, Marrubium vulgare [Lamiaceae].
Recorded once in Britain, the type population from Rye, Sussex, collected in 1930 (Bagnall, 1932). Otherwise only known from Bulgaria, Croatia and Spain, but probably under-recorded and likely to be more widespread across Europe on its host plant.
PHLAEOTHRIPIDAE - PHLAEOTHRIPINAE
Haplothrips marrubiicola Bagnall
Haplothrips marrubiicola Bagnall, 1932: 163
Bagnall RS (1932) On five new species of Thysanoptera from Great Britain. Entomologist’s Monthly Magazine 18: 161–165.
Mound LA & Minaei K (2007) Australian insects of the Haplothrips lineage (Thysanoptera – Phlaeothripinae). Journal of Natural History 41: 2919–2978.
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.
