Haplothrips propinquusHaplothrips propinquusBoth sexes fully winged. Body brown to dark brown, fore tarsi and basal half of antennal segment III yellowish-brown, IV and V sometimes pale at base; fore wing pale to weakly shaded with base darker; major setae pale. Antennae 8-segmented, segment III with 2 short stout sense cones, IV with 4 similar sense cones; VIII not narrowed at base. Head longer than wide; maxillary stylets one third of head width apart, retracted to postocular setae, maxillary bridge complete; postocular setae acute and short, usually not reaching posterior margin of compound eyes. Pronotal anteromarginal and midlateral setae acute, often no longer than discal setae, remaining three pairs of major setae short but stouter; epimeral sutures complete; prosternal basantra present, mesopresternum eroded to paired lateral triangles, sometimes weakly connected medially. Female fore tarsal tooth minute (scarcely visible). Fore wing constricted medially, with about 10 duplicated cilia, sub-basal setae short and pointed. Tergite IX setae S1 bluntly pointed, much shorter than tube, S2 acute; tube relatively long.
Male with no pore plate on sternite VIII; large male with large fore tarsal tooth; tergite IX setae S2 short and stout; pseudovirga of aedeagus broadened toward apex.
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 propinquus is closely similar to leucanthemi in structure, and shows similar variation in the size of males and their fore legs, but the apical part of the aedeagus is swollen instead of parallel-sided.
Breeding in the flowers of Achillea millefolium [Asteraceae].
Widespread in Britain, from southern England to northern Scotland (Mound et al., 1976), and similarly widespread in Europe from Norway to southern France and Bulgaria.
PHLAEOTHRIPIDAE - PHLAEOTHRIPINAE
Haplothrips propinquus Bagnall
Haplothrips propinquus Bagnall, 1933: 325
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.
