Hoplothrips longisetisHoplothrips longisetisFemale fully winged, male with wings shorter than thorax width. Body and femora brown, tarsi and tibiae yellow, antennal segment III yellow in basal half, fore wings weakly shaded toward apex. Antennae 8-segmented; segments III and IV each with 2 sense cones; VIII broadly joined to VII. Head longer than wide, cheeks almost parallel, without prominent setae; postocular setae long and softly pointed, wide apart; maxillary stylets retracted to postocular setae, about one third of head width apart. Pronotum without sculpture medially, with 4 pairs of long, weakly capitate major setae, anteromarginals scarcely larger than discal setae; prosternal basantra absent. Fore tarsus without a tooth. Metanotum without sculpture medially. Fore wing parallel sided, without duplicated cilia. Abdominal tergite I, the pelta, with lateral margins confluent with anterior margin of tergite II; tergites II–VII with two pairs of weakly sigmoid wing-retaining setae but anterior pair reduced on each tergite, marginal setae long and pointed; tergite IX setae S1 pointed, longer than tube.
Male similar to female but micropterous, tarsal tooth absent; tergite IX setae S2 short and stout; sternite VIII with no pore plate.
The genus Hoplothrips includes about 120 named species, but there are no modern identification keys to any substantial number of species. The most common species are known to exist as both winged and wingless morphs. Moreover, these species exhibit considerable sexual dimorphism, and males of the same species vary in body size, with some structures exhibiting patterns of allometric growth. As a result, species identification is often difficult (Mound & Walker, 1986; Kobro & Rafoss, 2006; Okajima, 2006). Hoplothrips longisetis is unusual within the genus in having only two sense cones on antennal segments III and IV, in the lack of duplicated cilia on the fore wing, and in having the S1 setae on tergite IX longer than the tube; recognising these differences, Priesner placed the species in a separate genus, Maderothrips.
Breeding in low numbers on dead branches, and probably predatory on mites and thrips larvae living under the dead bark of various Angiosperm trees.
Originally described from a single male collected at Gibside, Durham (Bagnall, 1910), this species is widespread but uncommon in Britain (Pitkin, 1969; Mound et al., 1976), although recorded from Surrey to northern Scotland, and also reported from Scandinavia.
PHLAEOTHRIPIDAE - PHLAEOTHRIPINAE
Hoplothrips longisetis (Bagnall)
Trichothrips longisetis Bagnall, 1910: 662
Trichothrips maderi Priesner, 1924: 4
Bagnall RS (1910) On two new species of Trichothrips from the Derwent Valley. Transactions of the Natural History Society of Northumberland, Durham, and Newcastle-upon-Tyne 3: 661–663.
Kobro S & Rafoss T (2006) Identification of adult males and females of Hoplothrips species (Thysanoptera: Tubulifera) known from Norway, and some deductions on their life history. Entomologica Fennica 17: 184–192.
Mound LA, Morison GD, Pitkin BR & Palmer JM (1976) Thysanoptera. Handbooks for the Identification of British Insects 1 (11): 1–79.
Mound LA & Walker AK (1986) Tubulifera (Insecta: Thysanoptera). Fauna of New Zealand 10: 1–140.
Okajima S (2006) The Suborder Tubulifera (Thysanoptera). The Insects of Japan 2: 1–720.
Pitkin BR (1969) New records of Thysanoptera in the British Isles. Entomologist’s Monthly Magazine 105: 201–202.
