Distinguishing features

Female macroptera. Body, antennae and legs brown, tarsi slightly paler; fore wings shaded but paler near base. Head wider than long, sculptured behind eyes but not near ocelli; eyes with 6 pigmented facets; ocellar setae III on anterior margins of triangle. Antennae 9-segmented; III–IV with forked sense cone; III unusually short, VII–IX elongate; II–V with few or with no microtrichia; VI narrowed to base but not pedicellate; IX longer than VIII. Pronotum weakly sculptured; with no long setae and few discal setae. Metascutum reticulate; median setae small, on anterior third of sclerite; campaniform sensilla present. Fore wing setae well developed, first vein with 8–9 basally, 3 medially and 2 distally; second vein with 11 setae including one seta basal to vein fork; clavus with 6 veinal setae and one basal seta. Abdominal tergites IV–VII with no sculpture medially, lines scarcely extend mesad of setae S2; VIII with comb of slender but rather widely spaced microtrichia; setae on IX–X long.
Male unknown.

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. The uniformly brown body of A. orchis, and the short brown third antennal segment, are distinctive within Anaphothrips. The inner lobe of the forked sensorium on the third antennal segment is not always fully developed, and the ninth segment is unusually long.

Biological data

Feeding on the leaves and flowers of Prasophyllum affine [Orchidaceae].

Distribution data

Known only from New South Wales and South Australia.

Family name

THRIPIDAE - THRIPINAE

Species name

Anaphothrips orchis Mound & Masumoto

Original name and synonyms

Anaphothrips orchis Mound & Masumoto, 2009: 47.

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