Xylaplothrips fuliginosusXylaplothrips fuliginosusBoth sexes fully winged. Body and legs brown to dark brown, fore tarsi and extreme apices of tibiae yellow, antennal segment III yellow but shaded in apical half, IV–VI yellow at base; fore wing weakly shaded in basal third with base dark; major setae pale. Antennae 8-segmented, segments III and IV each with 2 sense cones; VIII narrowed to base. Head longer than wide; maxillary stylets about one third of head width apart, retracted to postocular setae, maxillary bridge complete; postocular setae pointed, almost as long as dorsal length of compound eye. Pronotum with 4 pairs of major setae with softly pointed apices, anteronmarginals no larger than discal setae; epimeral sutures complete; prosternal basantra present, mesopresternum reduced to two lateral triangles that are weakly connected medially. Fore tarsus with very small recurved tooth at inner apex. Fore wing weakly constricted medially, with 3–9 duplicated cilia, sub-basal setae with pointed apices. Tergite lateral setae long and pointed; tergite IX setae S1 pointed, almost as long as tube.
Male similar to female but smaller, with no pore plate on sternite VIII; fore tarsal tooth small; tergite IX setae S2 short and stout; aedeagus apex broadly lanceolate.
The genus Xylaplothrips currently includes 26 species, but of these, only two species from Europe, ulmi Priesner and zawirskae Kucharczyk, and two species from Japan, bamboosae Okajima and togashii Okajima, are likely to be truly congeneric with the type species, fuliginosus. These five species differ from the other 21 in having only two sense cones on both antennal segment III and segment IV (Mound & Minaei, 2007). Most of the species listed under Xylaplothrips are from Asia, and are particularly associated with plant galls, either as invaders or as inquilines. In Britain, X. fulginosus differs from the recorded species of Haplothrips in having only two sense cones on antennal segment IV.
Breeding on dead branches and under bark of various woody angiosperms, although the biology is not clearly established. This species possibly feeds on fungal hyphae, but it is never found in large numbers, and this would be consistent with predatory behaviour on mites or other thrips (Mound & Minaei, 2007).
Although this species has been recorded widely in Britain, from Kent to northern Scotland, it is not commonly found (Mound et al., 1976); it is also known from Scandinavia to Bulgaria.
PHLAEOTHRIPIDAE - PHLAEOTHRIPINAE
Xylaplothrips fuliginosus (Schille)
Cryptothrips fuliginosus Schille, 1911: 7
Haplothrips obscuripennis Bagnall, 1913: 264
Haplothrips corticalis Priesner, 1914: 195
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.
