Haplothrips staticesHaplothrips staticesBoth sexes fully winged and also micropterous. Body, legs and antennae brown to dark brown, fore tarsi paler, antennal segment III lighter brown with yellow band above the pedicel; fore wing weakly shaded with base dark; major setae pale to light brown. Antennae 8-segmented, segment III with 2 sense cones, IV with 4 sense cones; VIII not narrowed to base. Head longer than wide; maxillary stylets about one fifth of head width apart, retracted to postocular setae, maxillary bridge complete; postocular setae bluntly pointed, about 0.4 as long as dorsal length of compound eye. Pronotum with major setae short, anteromarginals no longer than discal setae, anteroangulars and midlaterals slightly longer, epimerals and posteroangulars broadly blunt but no longer than width of antennal segment II; 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 short, S1 and S2 with broadly blunt apices, S3 acute. Tergite IX setae S1 bluntly pointed, about 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 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 statices is unusual amongst the Haplothrips species found in Britain because it produces both long-winged and short-winged adults. The relationship between these two winged forms remains obscure, and the short-winged form has been treated as a separate sub-species, morisoni Priesner. The maxillary stylets of statices are almost as close together in the head as those of juncorum, but antennal segments IV and V are uniformly brown, and the pronotal setae are much shorter than in juncorum.
Breeding in the flowers and under the leaf rosettes of Armeria maritima [Plumbaginaceae].
Recorded in Britain from the south coast of England to the Orkney Islands (but with no records from Wales), and also from both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland (O'Connor, 2008). The short-winged form has been recorded from Scotland and Ireland (Morison, 1947-1949; Mound et al., 1976). Widespread around the coasts of north western Europe, and also recorded from Eastern Europe.
PHLAEOTHRIPIDAE - PHLAEOTHRIPINAE
Haplothrips statices (Haliday)
Phloeothrips statices Haliday, 1836: 442
Morison GD (1947-1949) Thysanoptera of the London area. London Naturalist, Supplement 26: 1–36; 27: 37–75; 28: 76–131.
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.
O’Connor JP (2008) A review of the Irish thrips (Thysanoptera). Irish Naturalists’ Journal 29: 20–24.
