Distinguishing features

Females fully winged. Body whitish yellow with no brown markings; fore wings pale; antennae pale brown with segments IV–VI sometimes yellow at base. Head wider than long, finely reticulate between ocelli; ocellar setae pair III small, arising between anterior margins of posterior ocelli. Antennae 9-segmented; segments III–IV with long forked sense cone, segment VI inner margin with long sense cone arising close to base. Pronotum with narrow transverse reticulation but no markings between the main striae; posterior margin with three pairs of setae and one pair of longer posteroangular setae. Metanotum with closely spaced longitudinal striae, median pair of setae small and far distant from anterior margin. Fore wing first vein with two widely spaced setae on distal half, second vein without setae; wing apex with one stout seta; cilia arise ventrally close to anterior margin. Tergites with median pair of setae longer than distance between their bases; sculpture on lateral thirds with short longitudinal lines giving appearance of microtrichia; posterior margin of VIII with complete comb; tergite IX with lateral pair of setae slender not stout; tergite X with no longitudinal split.

Related species

The genus Pseudodendrothrips includes 20 described species, but the significance of some of the species in which the body colour is mainly yellow remains conjectural. P. mori is distinguished by its pale fore wings and uniformly pale body, but is structurally similar to P. bhatti Kudo from Japan (Masumoto & Okajima, 2017), and is distinguished from pale females of P. darci by the slender S3 setae on tergite VIII.

Biological data

Breeding on the leaves of Ficus and Morus spp. [Moraceae].

Distribution data

No specimen has been seen from Australia that can be securely identified as mori, based on the analysis of mori and darci by Masumoto and Okajima (2017) that is adopted here. Records of this species from Australia (Mound, 1999) are now considered to be misidentifications of darci. It appears that the pest species, mori, was originally from southeastern Asia, but it is recorded widely around the world, from Japan, China, Korea, Taiwan, Italy, Chile and USA (California, Georgia, Maryland, Illinois).

Family name

THRIPIDAE - DENDROTHRIPINAE

Species name

Pseudodendrothrips mori (Niwa)

Original name and synonyms

Belothrips mori Niwa, 1908: 180.
Graphidothrips stuardoi Moulton, 1930: 273.

References

Masumoto M & Okajima S (2017) Studies on Dendrothripinae (Thysanoptera, Thripidae) from Japan, with new records and one new species. Zootaxa 4362 (3): 405–420.

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.