Distinguishing features

Female macroptera. Body and legs brownish yellow, brown markings on pronotum, laterally on mesonotum and metascutum, medially on tergites; antennal segment I yellow, II–IV yellowish brown, V–IX darker brown; fore wings pale, veins weakly shaded; tergites IX–X with dark setae. Head longer than wide, produced in front of eyes; eyes with 6 pigmented facets; ocellar setae III outside ocellar triangle, anterior to hind ocelli; head with sculpture behind eyes, but not near ocelli. Antennae 9-segmented, II without microtrichia, III–IV with sense cone forked, VI–VII broadly joined by oblique suture; VI with pedicel. Pronotum weakly sculptured medially; with no long setae. Metascutum reticulate, median setae well behind anterior margin; campaniform sensilla present. Fore wing first vein with about 7 setae near base, 3–4 widely spaced setae on distal half; second vein with about 9 setae, with no setae basal to vein fork; clavus with 5–6 veinal setae and one seta at base. Abdominal tergites with small dentate microtrichia on sculpture lines laterally; II–VII with sculpture medially (rarely very weak), small dentate microtrichia on posterior margin laterally; VIII with posteromarginal comb complete; spiracles occupying no more than 0.3 of lateral margin of tergite VIII.
Female microptera. Similar to macroptera, wing lobe shorter than thorax width.
Male macroptera. Similar to female; tergite IX with 2 pairs of stout setae medially; sternites with C-shaped pore plates varying in size.
Larva II. Tergal dorsal setae capitate, but not broadly expanded; tergite IX faintly shaded at posterior margin with row of small pointed tubercles; X weakly shaded around bases of setae.

Related species

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 as in A. obscurus. The abdominal tergitesof females usually bear distinct reticulate markings medially that can be difficult to see on some pale specimens. In contrast to most of Australian Anaphothrips species the second vein of the fore wing does not bear any setae basal to the vein fork. Although females are found worldwide, the male of A. obscurus is known only from Iran.

Biological data

Feeding and breeding on the leaves, commonly in leaf axils of various Poaceae; sometimes considered a minor pest on various cereal crops, including Avena, Hordeum, Secale, Triticum and Zea. Micropterae have a shorter pupal period than macropterae, and although total fecundity does not differ between wing morphs early fecundity is greater in micropterae than macropterae (Jiang et al., 2015).

Distribution data

Worldwide in temperate areas, and in Australia taken only in souther areas.

Family name

THRIPIDAE - THRIPINAE

Species name

Anaphothrips obscurus (Müller)

Original name and synonyms

Thrips obscurus Müller, 1776: 96
Limothrips poaphagus Comstock, 1875: 120
Thrips striata Osborn, 1883: 155
Anaphothrips virgo Uzel, 1895: 148
Anaphothrips collaris Priesner, 1926: 185
Anaphothrips grisea Priesner, 1926: 185
Anaphothrips sexguttus Girault, 1928: 1
Anaphothrips discrepans Bagnall, 1933: 651.

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

Jiang HX, Niu SH, Li XW, Zhang XC & Feng JN (2015) Comparison of developmental and reproductive biology in wing diphenic Anaphothrips obscurus (Thysanoptera: Thripidae). Journal of Asia-Pacific Entomology 18: 735–739.