Haplothrips senecionisHaplothrips senecionisBoth sexes fully winged. Body brown to dark brown, fore tarsi and apices of fore tibiae largely yellow, mid and hind tarsi yellowish-brown, 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 stout sense cones, IV with 4 stout sense cones; VIII weakly narrowed to base. Head longer than wide; maxillary stylets less than one third of head width apart, retracted to postocular setae, maxillary bridge complete; postocular setae with apices blunt to capitate, usually about 0.7 as long as dorsal length of compound eye. Pronotum with 5 pairs of major setae with apices broadly blunt; epimeral sutures complete; prosternal basantra present, mesopresternum eroded to paired lateral triangles. Fore tarsus with small tooth. Fore wing constricted medially, with about 10 duplicated cilia, sub-basal setae with blunt apices. Tergite IX setae S1 bluntly 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 similar to that of leucanthemi.
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 senecionis 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 distinguendus by the more bluntly pointed to weakly capitate major setae, the closer position of the maxillary stylets, the mesopresternum that is incomplete medially, and the slimmer apex of the aedeagus.
Breeding in the flowers of Senecio jacobaea and Senecio aquaticus [Asteraceae].
Described from material taken in eastern Scotland (Bagnall, 1932; Mound, 1968), and widespread in Britain between Cambridgeshire and Caithness (Mound et al., 1976); also recorded from France, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden (Gertsson, 2015).
PHLAEOTHRIPIDAE - PHLAEOTHRIPINAE
Haplothrips senecionis Bagnall
Haplothrips senecionis Bagnall, 1932: 164
Bagnall RS (1932) On five new species of Thysanoptera from Great Britain. Entomologist’s Monthly Magazine 18: 161–165.
Gertsson C-A (2015) An annotated checklist of Thysanoptera (thrips) from the Nordic countries. Entomologisk Tidskrift 136 (4): 185–198.
Mound LA (1968) A review of R. S. Bagnall’s Thysanoptera collections. Bulletin of the British Museum (Natural History) Entomology Supplement 11: 1–181.
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.
