Female aptera. Body, legs and antennal segments I–II yellow, III–V yellow with pale brown shadings, VI variably yellow at base, VII–IX brown. Head reticulate, weakly so in ocellar region; eyes with no facets pigmented or only weakly indicated; ocellar setae III variable in position. Antennae 9-segmented; sense cone simple on III, forked on IV; II without microtrichia (also III in type series); IV–VI pedicellate. Pronotum almost without sculpture; with no long setae. Mesonotum and metascutum transverse, campaniform sensilla present. Abdominal tergites transversely reticulate medially, posterolateral margins smooth; II–VII with all four pairs of setae equally small; VIII with narrow, irregularly lobed, craspedum; spiracles occupying almost half of lateral margins of VIII.
Male aptera. Similar to female; tergite IX with 2 pairs of short stout setae medially; sternites III–VII with weakly C-shaped or curved pore plate.
There are 43 species of Anaphothrips known from Australia (Mound & Masumoto, 2009), out of a total of 86 species worldwide (ThripsWiki, 2020). Many of these species have the antennae clearly 9-segmented, others clearly have only 8 segments, but several species have an intermediate condition with segment VI bearing a partial and often oblique transverse suture. The significance of this grass-living species remains in doubt, and it is possibly merely the apterous form of A. varii.
Feeding and breeding on the leaves of grasses [Poaceae].
Recorded from New South Wales and Australian Capital Territory.
THRIPIDAE - THRIPINAE
Anaphothrips woodi Pitkin
Anaphothrips woodi Pitkin, 1978: 367.
Mound LA & Masumoto M (2009) Australian Thripinae of the Anaphothrips genus-group (Thysanoptera), with three new genera and thirty-three new species. Zootaxa 2042: 1–76. http://www.mapress.com/zootaxa/2009/f/zt02042p076.pdf