Distinguishing features

Female macropterous. Body and legs brown; antennal segment III paler at base than at apex, IV–IX brown; fore wing shaded, basal quarter paler, base of clavus dark. Head with postocular region apparently shorter than eye length; distal maxillary palp segment subdivided. Antennae 9-segmented, III with sensorium not curving around apex, extending to basal half of segment, without internal markings. Mesonotum with 2 pairs of accessory setae medially. Metanotal reticles elongate, without internal markings. Abdominal tergite I almost without sculpture; trichobothria on X nearly twice the diameter of the base of major setae on X. Sternites III–VI with 4 pairs of marginal setae but the lateral pairs arise sub-marginally; VII with only 3 pairs of marginal setae, about 6 pairs of discal setae laterally to sub-medially.
Male not known.

Related species

The genus Desmothrips is known only from Australia, with 18 described species (Pereyra & Mound, 2010). D. mendozai is known only from a few damaged specimens. It is another of the species with the forewings largely fuscous but paler in the basal quarter. The sensorium on antennal segment III is not curved around the apex of this segment, and the median metanotal reticulations are slightly elongate and lack internal markings.

Biological data

Presumably flower-living.

Distribution data

Described from three females taken at Mundaring, near Perth in Western Australia, but both sexes have been seen from Cane River Conservation Park, WA.

Family name

AEOLOTHRIPIDAE

Species name

Desmothrips mendozai Girault

Original name and synonyms

Desmothrips mendozai Girault, 1932: 6

References

Mound LA (1967) A taxonomic revision of the Australian Aeolothripidae (Thysanoptera). Bulletin of the British Museum (Natural History). Entomology 20: 41–74.

Pereyra V & Mound LA (2010) Phylogenetic relationships within the genus Desmothrips (Thysanoptera, Aeolothripidae), an Australian genus of facultative flower-living predators. Systematic Entomology 35: 306–317.