Distinguishing features

Both sexes fully winged. Body mainly brown with yellow internal pigment, abdomen paler; fore wings brown at base, then with three pale bands alternating with three decreasingly pigmented bands; antennal segments III–V yellow, other segments brown; tarsi and apices of tibiae yellow. Head wider than long, tuberculate between ocelli; ocellar setae pair III arising just outside anterior margins of ocellar triangle. Antennae 9-segmented, but VI usually with suture only ventrally; segments III–IV with slender forked sense cone, segment VI inner margin with long sense cone arising medially. Pronotum with complex reticulation, reticles with internal markings, discal setae fine, posterior margin with no long setae. Metanotum with elongate and irregularly tuberculate reticulation, median pair of setae far from anterior margin. Fore wing with no prominent setae, wing apex recurved with no stout seta, cilia arise ventrally far behind anterior margin. Tergites with median pair of setae longer than distance between their bases; lateral thirds of tergites with complex sculpture; posterior margin of VIII with complete comb; tergite X with no longitudinal split.

Related species

D. diaspora appears to be a member of a complex of undescribed species in Australia, all of which have the ocellar region with an array of small tubercles. The Old World genus Dendrothrips currently includes 56 described species, mainly from Africa and Asia. The metathoracic endofurca is greatly enlarged, "lyre-shaped", extending into the mesothorax, the sides of the metathorax are greatly swollen, the hind coxae are wider than long, the fore wing cilia arise ventrally well behind the anterior margin, and the apex of the fore wing is recurved without a prominent terminal seta. The form of the wing apex distinguishes the members of this genus from the other species placed in the Dendrothripinae.

Biological data

Presumably breeding on leaves; adults collected from various plants but most often from two species of Oleaceae, Nestegis apetala and Notelaea microcarpa (Mound & Wells, 2015).

Distribution data

Collected widely across Australia, from Norfolk Island and eastern Queensland to the north west of Western Australia

Family name

THRIPIDAE - DENDROTHRIPINAE

Species name

Dendrothrips diaspora Mound

Original name and synonyms

Dendrothrips diaspora Mound, 1999: 261

References

Mound LA (1999) Saltatorial leaf-feeding Thysanoptera (Thripidae, Dendrothripinae) in Australia and New Caledonia, with newly recorded pests of ferns, figs and mulberries. Australian Journal of Entomology 38: 257–273.

Mound LA & Tree DJ (2016) Genera of the leaf-feeding Dendrothripinae (Thysanoptera, Thripidae), with new species from Australia and Sulawesi, Indonesia. Zootaxa 4109 (5): 569–582.

Mound LA & Wells A (2015) Endemics and adventives: Thysanoptera (Insecta) Biodiversity of Norfolk, a tiny Pacific Island. Zootaxa 3964 (2): 183–210.