Distinguishing features

Female macroptera. Body and legs yellow; antennal segments I–III mainly yellow, IV brown with basal third yellow, V–VIII brown; fore wings pale, basal third and posterior margin shaded, scale shaded; body setae pale. Head slender, as long as wide, slightly produced in front of eyes; eyes with 6 pigmented facets; ocellar setae III anterolateral to hind ocelli. Antennae 8-segmented, III–IV with small forked sense cone, II without microtrichia, IV–VI pedicellate, sometimes VI ventrally with partial transverse suture. Pronotum with faint anastomosing striae; with no long setae. Metascutum with large irregular reticulation, without internal wrinkles; median setae near anterior margin; campaniform sensilla absent. Fore wing first vein with about 6 setae on basal half, 1 seta at middle, 2 setae distally; second vein with 7–10 setae, sometimes with one seta just basal to vein fork; clavus with 4 veinal setae and one basal seta. Abdominal tergites without microtrichia on sculpture lines, but with small dentate microtrichia on posterior margins laterally; tergites II–VIII with sculpture not extending mesad of S2 setae; tergal setae S1 small, wide apart; VIII posteromarginal comb long and fine.
Male macroptera. Similar to female; tergite VIII with long comb; IX with 2 pairs of short stout setae medially; sternites III–VII with large C-shaped pore plate.

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 as in A. swezeyi, but several species have an intermediate condition with segment VI bearing a partial and often oblique transverse suture as in A. obscurus. This is a typical grass-living species of Anaphothrips, with the body colour clear yellow.

Biological data

Feeding and breeding on the leaves of various species of Poaceae.

Distribution data

Coastal regions of Queensland and also Hawaii and New Caledonia.

Family name

THRIPIDAE - THRIPINAE

Species name

Anaphothrips swezeyi Moulton

Original name and synonyms

Anaphothrips swezeyi Moulton, 1928: 107.

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