Female
Antennal segment IV
Meso & metanotum
Female sternites VI–VII
Male head & pronotum
Male antennal segment III (dorsal and ventral)
Male thorax and tergite I
Female macropterous. Body, legs and antennae brown; antennal segments III–IV largely yellow, III with apical dark ring, IV weakly shaded in apical fifth; fore wing uniformly dark. Head longer than wide, prolonged in front of eyes, not recessed into anterior margin of pronotum. Antennae 9-segmented, unusually elongate; III–IV with sensory area formed of irregular scallops extending to basal third of segment. Mesonotum without sculpture on anterior two-thirds, one pair of setae medially. Metanotum with no sculpture medially. Fore wing slender with apex rounded. Abdominal tergite I anterior margin not sharply constricted, tergites without sculpture; trichobothria on X minute; sternites IV–VII each with two pairs of marginal setae and two pairs of setae laterally on discal area.
Male slender, colour similar to female but antennal segments almost uniformly brown; tergite I prolonged posteriorly; sternites with two pairs of marginal setae but only one pair of long setae on discal area.
Currently 14 species are placed in the genus Franklinothrips, all from tropical and subtropical countries, although more undescribed species are known from Southeast Asia (Mound & Reynaud, 2005). Within this genus, F. bassetti appears to be the least well-developed ant-mimic. The base of the abdomen is not constricted to form a waist, and the fore wings are uniformly dusky, not banded.
Known only from two females and one male collected from the canopy of rainforest trees.
Collected in southeastern Queensland, Australia.
AEOLOTHRIPIDAE
Franklinothrips basseti Mound & Marullo
Franklinothrips basseti Mound & Marullo, 1998: 944
Mound LA & Marullo R (1998) Biology and identification of Aeolothripidae (Thysanoptera) in Australia. Invertebrate Taxonomy 12: 929–950.
Mound LA & Reynaud P (2005) Franklinothrips; a pantropical Thysanoptera genus of ant-mimicking obligate predators (Aeolothripidae). Zootaxa 864: 1–16.