Thrips origaniThrips origaniFemale fully winged. Body and legs light brown, but major setae and tergal antecostal ridges dark; antennal segment I pale, II dark brown, III–VII brown; fore wings weakly shaded, with dark setae. Antennae 7-segmented; III–IV each with forked sense cone. Head with 2 pairs of ocellar setae; pair III arising just inside anterior margins of ocellar triangle, about as long as distance between two ocelli; postocular setae pair I (and sometimes III) about as long as ocellar setae III, postocular setae pair II small. Pronotum with 2 pairs of posteroangular setae, outer pair slightly shorter than inner pair; posterior margin with 3 pairs of setae. Mesonotum without anterior campaniform sensilla, median setae distant from posterior margin. Metanotum irregularly reticulate medially, reticles without internal markings; median setae arising behind anterior margin; campaniform sensilla absent. Fore wing first vein with 3–4 setae on distal half; second vein with about 10 setae. Abdominal tergite II with 3 lateral marginal setae; tergites V–VIII with paired ctenidia, on VIII posteromesad to spiracles; tergite VIII posteromarginal comb of long microtrichia; pleurotergites without discal setae, but bearing ciliate microtrichia; tergite IX with only one pair of campaniform sensilla, X with median split. Sternites III–VI each with 1–5 discal setae, II and VII without discal setae; VII with setae S1 in front of margin.
Male unknown.
The genus Thrips is the second largest genus in the Thysanoptera, and currently includes, worldwide, over 290 species. All members of genus Thrips lack ocellar setae I on the head, and they all have ctenidia on tergite VIII posteromesad to the spiracles. Other characters, such as number of antennal segments, number of setae on the fore wing veins, and number of discal setae on the sternites are variable between species (Palmer, 1992; Nakahara, 1994; Mound & Masumoto, 2005). Thrips origani shares with both Thrips tabaci and Thrips euphorbiicola the presence of closely spaced rows of microtrichia on the abdominal pleurotergites, but in contrast to both of those species the sternites bear a few discal setae.
Feeding and breeding in the flowers of species of Origanum [Lamiaceae].
Locally common in southern England, but also recorded in parts of northern Scotland (Mound et al., 1976). This species is listed from Norway (Kobro, 2011), and is otherwise widespread across much of Central Europe, and is also recorded from the Azores and Madeira (zur Strassen, 2003).
THRIPIDAE - THRIPINAE
Thrips origani Priesner
Thrips origani Priesner, 1926: 272
Thrips dyssochaetus Bagnall, 1927: 570
Kobro S (2011) Checklist of Nordic Thysanoptera. Norwegian Journal of Entomology 58: 20–26.
Mound LA & Masumoto M (2005) The genus Thrips (Thysanoptera, Thripidae) in Australia, New Caledonia and New Zealand. Zootaxa 1020: 1–64.
Mound LA, Morison GD, Pitkin BR & Palmer JM (1976) Thysanoptera. Handbooks for the Identification of British Insects 1 (11): 1–79.
Nakahara S (1994) The genus Thrips Linnaeus (Thysanoptera: Thripidae) of the New World. United States Department of Agriculture. Technical Bulletin 1822: 1–183.
Palmer JM (1992) Thrips (Thysanoptera) from Pakistan to the Pacific: a review. Bulletin of the British Museum (Natural History) Entomology Series 61 (1): 1–76.
zur Strassen R (2003) Die terebranten Thysanopteren Europas und des Mittelmeer-Gebietes. Die Tierwelt Deutschlands 74: 1–271.
