Scolothrips longicornisScolothrips longicornisFemale fully winged. Body, legs and antennae yellow, distal antennal segments weakly shaded; fore wings pale with two narrow dark cross-bands of which the distal one is paler than the sub-basal one, clavus brown with apex pale. Antennae 8-segmented, III and IV each with slender forked sense cone. Head with three pairs of ocellar setae, pair III long, on anterior margins of ocellar triangle and about 0.7 as long as head width across eyes; maxillary palps 3-segmented. Pronotum with 6 pairs of very long setae; discal area without sculpture lines, and with no discal setae. Mesonotum without anterior campaniform sensilla. Metanotum weakly reticulate, median setae at anterior margin; campaniform sensilla absent. Meso- and metasternal furca with spinula. Fore wing first and second veins each with about 5 very long setae, clavus with 4 very long setae. Abdominal tergites without sculpture lines medially, median pair of setae small and far apart; tergite VIII without a marginal comb; IX with only one pair of campaniform sensilla, X without a median split. Sternites without discal setae; S1 on VII arising in front of margin.
Male hemimacropterous, wings no longer that 3 times thorax width; sternites III–VIII each with broad pore plate; tergite IX without stout setae medially.
There are 16 species listed in the genus Scolothrips, although two of these are considered nomena dubia (Mound, 2011a). The name sexmaculatus has been mis-applied in several countries to species that, like longicornis, lack one or more pairs of discal setae on the posterior half of the pronotum. Moreover, two further species have been named that cannot at present be distinguished satisfactorily from longicornis.
Feeding on mites as with all members of this genus. Breeding on leaves, but not known to be associated with any particular plant species.
Recorded once in Britain, a single female found outdoors at Flitcham, Norfolk, in 1944 (Mound et al., 1976), but despite anecdotal reports of historical findings (Morison, 1947–1949) there is no evidence to suggest that the species is established. However, it is recorded widely across the western Palaearctic (zur Strassen, 2003), including Iran.
THRIPIDAE - THRIPINAE
Scolothrips longicornis Priesner
Scolothrips longicornis Priesner, 1926: 239
Scolothrips acariphagus Yakhontov, 1929: 273
Morison GD (1947-1949) Thysanoptera of the London area. London Naturalist, Supplement 26: 1–36; 27: 37–75; 28: 76–131.
Mound LA (2011a) Species recognition in the genus Scolothrips (Thysanoptera, Thripidae), predators of leaf-feeding mites. Zootaxa 2797: 45–53.
Mound LA, Morison GD, Pitkin BR & Palmer JM (1976) Thysanoptera. Handbooks for the Identification of British Insects 1 (11): 1–79.
zur Strassen R (2003) Die terebranten Thysanopteren Europas und des Mittelmeer-Gebietes. Die Tierwelt Deutschlands 74: 1–271.
