Distinguishing features

Female macroptera. Body, legs and antennae pale brown, hind tibiae paler, antennal segment I white; fore wing weakly shaded in basal half; tergite IX major setae brown. Head wider than long; transverse sculpture lines behind eyes, ocellar triangle without sculpture; eyes with 6 pigmented facets; ocellar setae III outside triangle. Antennae 9-segmented, III–IV with forked sense cone; II with a few short microtrichia near apex; VI not pedicellate, suture oblique between VI–VII. Pronotum with faint transverse lines, posteromarginal setae S1 slightly larger than remaining setae; prosternal ferna weakly divided. Metascutum irregularly reticulate, reticles sometimes elongate; median setae not close to anterior margin, campaniform sensilla absent. Fore wing first vein with about 9 setae near base, 2 setae medially, 2 setae distally; second vein with about 12 setae; clavus with 6–7 veinal setae plus one seta at base. Abdominal tergites II–VII with no sculpture medially; laterally with about 8 transverse lines with few or no microtrichia, not extending mesad of setae S2; VIII with long regular posteromarginal comb.
Male macroptera. Similar to female; tergite IX with median setae not short and stout; sternite III with one weakly transverse pore plate medially.

Related species

The distal segmentation of the antennae is irregular in A. cobari, and in males the presence of just one small weakly transverse pore plate medially on the third sternite is currently unique in this genus. 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 pronotal setae are short, and the fore wing clavus has no discal seta.

Biological data

Feeding on the leaves of Myoporum sp. and Eremophila sp. [Myoporaceae], also Dodonaea sp. [Sapindaceae], Lycium ferossissimum [Solanaceae] and Suaeda australis [Chenopodiaceae].

Distribution data

Recorded widely from South Australia, Australian Capital Territory, New South Wales, and Western Australia.

Family name

THRIPIDAE - THRIPINAE

Species name

Anaphothrips cobari Mound & Masumoto

Original name and synonyms

Anaphothrips cobari Mound & Masumoto, 2009: 27.

References

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