Haplothrips setigerHaplothrips setigerBoth sexes fully winged. Body, legs and antennae brown to dark brown, antennal segment III light brown with yellow pedicel; fore wing pale with base dark; major setae pale. Antennae 8-segmented, segment III with 2 short stout 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 bluntly pointed, about 0.5 as long as dorsal length of compound eye. Pronotum with epimeral setae the only major pair, with apices broadly blunt, remaining major setae scarcely larger than discal setae; epimeral sutures complete; prosternal basantra present, mesopresternum eroded to paired lateral triangles but weakly joined medially. Fore tarsus with small tooth. Fore wing constricted medially, with about 8 duplicated cilia; sub-basal setae with broadly blunt apices; cilia at wing apex covered with minute barbs. Tergite IX setae S1 bluntly pointed, scarcely 0.5 as long as tube.
Male with no pore plate on sternite VIII; fore tarsal tooth well developed; tergite IX setae S2 short and stout; aedeagus apex broadly spoon-shaped.
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 setiger can be distinguished from the other Haplothrips in Britain by the roughened surface of the cilia at the tip of the fore wing, and the presence of only one pair of long setae on the pronotum. A common Mediterranean species, H. reuteri, also has roughened cilia at the fore wing apex, but it has longer setae on the pronotum, and the setae on tergite IX almost as long as the tube.
Breeding in the flowers of various species in the Asteraceae genera Crepis, Achillea, Senecio and Matricaria.
In Britain, recorded primarily from south east England (Mound et al., 1976) but also from Nottinghamshire and South Yorkshire; otherwise widespread in Europe, from Norway south to the Mediterranean region and the Canary Islands.
PHLAEOTHRIPIDAE - PHLAEOTHRIPINAE
Haplothrips setiger Priesner
Haplothrips setiger Priesner, 1921: 11
Haplothrips kraussei Priesner, 1927: 581
Haplothrips plumociliatus Maltbaek, 1931: 3
Haplothrips canariensis Priesner, 1933: 210
Haplothrips sedicola Bagnall, 1933: 317
Haplothrips uzelianus Bagnall, 1933: 318
Haplothrips tenuicornis Bagnall, 1933: 319
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.
