Distinguishing features

Both exes fully winged. Female brown, tarsi, fore tibiae, and antennal segment III yellowish brown; fore wing and clavus deeply shaded. Head slightly wider than long with 2 pairs of ocellar setae; pair I absent; pair III between or behind posterior ocelli; mouth cone short, rounded. Antenna 8-segmented and relatively short; segments III and IV each with a forked sense cone. Pronotum transverse; median area and anterior half with transverse sculpture lines; postero-angular setae long, the inner one about 1.5 as long as the outer; all 3 pairs of postero-marginal setae about twice as long as discal setae. Metanotum reticulate, median setae near anterior margin. Tarsi 2-segmented; pretarsus of fore leg apparently without a terminal tooth. Fore wing long, slender; chaetotaxy variable - 1st vein with about 10 setae basally, 4 (or 3, or 2) medially, and 3 (rarely 2) distally, 2nd vein with 16–20 setae. Tergites with lines of sculpture laterally but none medially; paired median setae separated by about 1.5 times their length; postero-lateral margins with a distinct fringe of microtrichia; tergite II with 4 lateral marginal setae; tergites VII and VIII with a few scattered discal microtrichia laterally; tergite VIII with postero-marginal comb long; tergite X with dorsal split about two-thirds as long as tergite.
Male similar in colour and structure to female, but paler, with sternites III–VI bearing a broadly oval pore plate, tergite IX with 4 setae in a transverse row anterior to median pores.

Related species

Similar to A. cassiniae and A. nothofagi but with setae more numerous on fore wing 1st vein. The tergites bear a distinct lateral postero-marginal fringe of microtrichia, as in A. cassiniae, but have fewer discal microtrichia. Adelphithrips comprises three described species, each of which has a different arrangement of sternal pore plates in males; these are present on three in A. cassiniae, four in A. dolus, and two in A. nothofagi.

Biological data

Hosts not known; collected from under the bark and in the flowers of Senecio stewartiae. One female collected from Penguin Creek, in nest of black tit (Petroica macrocephala dannefaerdi).

Distribution data

Known only from The Snares, New Zealand.

Family name

THRIPIDAE, THRIPINAE

Species name

Adelphithrips dolus Mound & Walker

Original name and synonyms

Adelphithrips dolus Mound & Walker, 1982: 60

References

Mound LA & Walker AK (1982) Terebrantia (Insecta: Thysanoptera). Fauna of New Zealand 1: 1–113.