Distinguishing features

Female fully winged or with wings variably short to micropterous. Body brown, antennal segment III yellow at extreme base; fore wings brown. Head longer than tube; compound eyes about 1.4 times as long ventrally as dorsally; postocular setae shorter than distance between their bases; ocellar setae arising between posterior ocelli or slightly behind, as long as distance between their bases; maxillary stylets reaching less than halfway into head. Antennal segment IV as long as III or longer; segment III with 2 sense cones, IV with 4. Prosternal basantra present. Metanotum broad, reticulate, with a pair of long median setae. Fore tarsal tooth absent. Fore wings with 2 major sub-basal setae, these equal in length; fully developed wing with 4–9 duplicated wing cilia. Abdomen: pelta with broad lateral lobes, and with 1 or 2 pairs of small setae laterally on median lobe; tergites II–VII with curved wing-retaining setae; tergite IX posteromarginal setae almost half as long as tube, with S1 and S2 subequal in length; anal setae more than half as long as tube.
Male similar to female, fore tarsal tooth present.

Related species

The genus Nesothrips includes 31 species, of which 6 are endemic to New Zealand, 13 are from Australia, 9 described from various Pacific islands, and 3 from southeast Asia. Nesothrips species usually have a rather short head, with a pair of setae between the hind ocelli, and the maxillary stylets wide apart. Prolongation of the eyes ventrally as in eastopi is not uncommon in other spore-feeding species associated with Poaceae.

Biological data

Feeding on fungal spores at the base of Juncus leaves, and also of Cortaderia splendens [Poaceae].

Distribution data

Known only from New Zealand (BP, TO / SD, BR, SC).

Family name

Family: Phlaeothripidae, Idolothripinae

Species name

Nesothrips eastopi (Mound)

Original name and synonyms

Rhaebothrips eastopi Mound, 1974: 173

References

Mound LA (1974) The Nesothrips complex of spore-feeding Thysanoptera (Phlaeothripidae: Idolothripinae). Bulletin of the British Museum (Natural History), Entomology 31: 107–188.

Mound LA & Palmer JM (1983) The generic and tribal classification of spore-feeding Thysanoptera (Phlaeothripidae: Idolothripinae). Bulletin of the British Museum (Natural History). Entomology 46: 1–174.

Mound LA & Walker AK (1986) Tubulifera (Insecta: Thysanoptera). Fauna of New Zealand 10: 1–140.