Distinguishing features

Female fully winged. Body almost white, anterior margin of head brown; fore wings pale with clavus shaded and two shaded transverse bands; antennal segments VI–VII sharply brown. Head with anterior margin recessed; ocellar setae minute, pair III arise between posterior ocelli. Antennae 7-segmented; segments III–IV with simple sense cone, segment VI broad at base. Pronotum with weak transverse lines; 4 pairs of posteromarginal setae, posteroangular pair twice as long as posteromarginals. Metanotum with elongate reticulation, median pair of setae far behind anterior margin. Fore wing with veinal setae minute, cilia arising ventrally but close to anterior margin. Tergites with fine sculpture lines within main reticulations; median pair of tergal setae small; tergite IX large with apical major setae short and arising from pair of small tubercles, tergite X with no longitudinal split.

Related species

The genus Edissa includes only 2 species, the other species being known from South Africa and Sudan. The genus is unusual among the Dendrothripinae because, although the metathorax and hind coxae are similar to those of Dendrothrips species, the tergal median setae are small and wide apart, and the fore wing cilia arise ventrally but close to the anterior margin. The genus shares these character states with the species of Asprothrips, in which the ninth abdominal tergite also bears a pair of tubercles on the posterior margin.

Biological data

Presumably breeding on the leaves of unidentified grasses.

Distribution data

Collected in north-eastern Queensland, but very similar specimens have been seen from Thailand and also from southern Japan and southern China (Zhang et al., 2018).

Family name

THRIPIDAE - DENDROTHRIPINAE

Species name

Edissa steinerae Mound

Original name and synonyms

Edissa steinerae Mound, 1999: 266

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.

Zhang SM, Mound LA & Hastings A (2018) Thysanoptera Chinensis - Thripidae genera from China. Lucidcentral.org, Identic Pty Ltd, Queensland, Australia. https://keys.lucidcentral.org/keys/v3/thysanoptera_chinensis/