Parrellathrips ullmanae, female  

Parrellathrips ullmanae, antenna

Parrellathrips ullmanae, head & thorax

Parrellathrips ullmanae, female tergites VI-VIII

Parrellathrips ullmanae, female sternites VI-VII

Australian fauna

No member of this Family is known from Australia.

Biology

Very little is known about the five species placed in the family Fauriellidae. Two species from South Africa are known only from the original material from which they were described. No host information is available for Fauriella natalensis, but Opisthothrips elytropappi was described from Elytropappus rhinocerotis , a species of Asteraceae. The females of this latter species differ from the other four species placed in Fauriellidae in having a remarkably weak ovipositor (Mound et al., 1980); this suggests that the females cannot insert their eggs into plant tissues but must deposit eggs superficially, possibly within the florets of their host. Parrellathrips ullmanae is also known from a single series of females, and these were collected together with larvae from the flowers of Garrya vealchii [Garryaceae] in California (Mound & Marullo, 1999). The two European species in this family, Ropotamothrips buresi and R. ressli, are possibly associated with Artemisia (zur Strassen, 2003).

Geographic distribution

Fauriella and Opisthothrips were described from South East Africa, Parrellathrips from California, and the two species of Ropotamothrips have been found across southern Europe between Spain and Georgia.

Recognition

The five known species of Fauriellidae do not share single autapomorphy, but exhibit a confusing pattern of character states each of which is found in other families. The antennae are similar to those of Merothripidae and Melanthripidae, with the distal segments distinct from each other, most segments bearing rows of microtrichia, and the sensoria at the apex of segments III and IV are transverse. However, sternite VII in females is similar to that of Thripidae, and the metanotal median setae arise close to the posterior margin as in Aeolothripidae and Merothripidae.

Genus and species diversity

A total of four genera and five species are known in the Fauriellidae (ThripsWiki, 2020).

Family relationships

The Fauriellidae is not characterised by any single feature, the four included genera showing a confusing pattern of character states that are intermediate between those found in several other families. There is thus no reliable basis for considering that the four genera represent a unique clade (Mound & Marullo, 1999). Fauriellidae is referred to by Bhatti (2006) as the Hemithripidae, although Hemithrips Bagnall is based on a poorly preserved amber fossil on which few details can be observed (Mound & Morris, 2007).

Thysanoptera systematics

The classification adopted here is a compromise between practicality and the ideal of a classification based on phylogenetic relationships. The two sub-orders, Terebrantia and Tubulifera, are considered sister-groups (Buckman et al., 2013), but relationships among the eight families of Terebrantia remain far from clear (and there are also five families based on fossils - see ThripsWiki 2020). A radically different classification was proposed by Bhatti (1994, 1998, 2006) that recognised two Orders, 10 superfamilies and 40 families, but that classification is based on autapomorphies rather than synapomorphies, and is thus essentially phenetic rather than phylogenetic. 

References

Bhatti JS (1994) Phylogenetic relationships among Thysanoptera (Insecta) with particular reference to the families of the Order Tubulifera. Zoology (Journal of Pure and Applied Zoology) 4 (1993): 93–130.

Bhatti JS (1998) New structural features in the Order Tubulifera (Insecta). 1. Amalgamation of labro-maxillary complex with cranium and other cephalic structures. Zoology (Journal of Pure and Applied Zoology) 5: 147–176.

Bhatti JS (2006) The classification of Terebrantia (Insecta) into families. Oriental Insects 40: 339–375.

Buckman RS, Mound LA & Whiting MF (2013) Phylogeny of thrips (Insecta: Thysanoptera) based on five molecular loci. Systematic Entomology 38: 123–133.

Mound LA, Heming BS & Palmer JM (1980) Phylogenetic relationships between the families of recent Thysanoptera. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society of London 69: 111–141.

Mound LA & Marullo R(1999) Two new basal-clade Thysanoptera from California with Old World affinities. Journal of the New York entomological Society 106: 81–94.

Mound LA & Morris DC (2007) The insect Order Thysanoptera: classification versus systematics. Pp 395-411, in Zhang ZQ & Shear WA [eds], Linnaeus Tercentenary: Progress in Invertebrate Taxonomy. Zootaxa 1668: 1–766. http://www.mapress.com/zootaxa/2007f/zt01668p411.pdf

ThripsWiki (2020) ThripsWiki - providing information on the World's thrips. Available from: http://thrips.info/wiki/Main_Page [accessed 29.x.2019].

zur Strassen (2003) Die terebranten Thysanopteren Europas und des Mittelmeer-Gebietes. Die Tierwelt Deutschlands 74: 1–271.