Distinguishing features

Both sexes fully winged. Female brown, antennal segment III yellow at extreme base; major setae brown; fore wings uniformly brown, with a median longitudinal line. Head about as long as tube and a little longer than wide; compound eyes as large dorsally as ventrally; postocular setae as long as distance between their bases; ocellar setae about as long as distance between posterior ocelli, arising between or slightly behind them; maxillary stylets reaching about halfway into head. Antennal segment III longer than segment IV; segment III with 2 sense cones, IV with 4. Pronotum transverse, epimeral sutures complete; all major setae well developed; basantra present; ferna large; mesopresternum usually boat-shaped; metathoracic sternopleural sutures usually present. Metanotum with median setae long, weakly sculptured laterally, and with a faint reticulate pattern posteriorly. Fore tarsal tooth absent. Fore wings with 3 major sub-basal setae, S3 the longest, and with 8–13 duplicated wing cilia. Abdomen: pelta with short lateral lobes, and bearing 1 or 2 pairs of small setae laterally on median lobe; tergites II–VII with sigmoid wing-retaining setae; tergite IX posteromarginal setae almost half as long as tube, with S1 shorter than S2; anal setae shorter than tube.
Male similar to female; pronotum enlarged in large males; 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. N. zondagi differs from N. doulli in that the females lack a fore tarsal tooth, and the pelta bears a few minute setae.

Biological data

Feeding on fungal spores on dead branches and twigs, and apparently associated with podocarp forest, in contrast to most New Zealand thrips.

Distribution data

Known only from New Zealand (AK, BP, TO / NN, BR).

Family name

PHLAEOTHRIPIDAE, IDOLOTHRIPINAE

Species name

Nesothrips zondagi (Mound)

Original name and synonyms

Rhaebothrips zondagi Mound, 1974: 176

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