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Print Fact SheetStenurothripidae

Australian fauna

No member of this Family is known from Australia.

Biology

The members of this family are all flower-living. The four species of Holarthrothrips breed in the male flowers of Phoenix species, including the Date Palm. The single species of Oligothrips breeds in the flowers of Arctostaphylus in California, but the biology of the single species of Heratythrips in California remains unknown.

Geographic distribution

The members of Holarthrothrips are found between India and the Mediterranean area including the Canary Islands. In contrast, Oligothrips and Heratythrips are both known only from western North America.

Recognition

Stenurothripidae species all have nine antennal segments, of which the distal segments are fully distinct from each other, segments II-IX bear transverse rows of prominent microtrichia, and the sensoria on segments III and IV are broadly conical. Other characters of the body vary considerably between the three genera. Heratythrips differs from the other two in that the tentorium is not apparent within the head, and there are no long setae on the head or pronotum. However, Heratythrips resembles Oligothrips in having the metanotum reticulate, antennal segment IX about twice as long as wide, and abdominal tergite VIII without a posteromarginal fringe of microtrichia. In contrast, the species of Holarthrothrips have the metanotum with concentric rings of sculpture bearing microtrichia, antennal segment IX is about five times longer than wide, and tergite VIII bears a prominent posteromarginal comb.

Genus and species diversity

Only three genera of living species are recognised in the family Stenurothripidae (= Adiheterothripidae). Adiheterothrips is now recognised as a junior synonym of Holarthrothrips (Mound et al., 1980), and this genus includes four species (Bhatti, 1986). Oligothrips and Heratythrips each include a single species (Mound & Marullo, 1999; Mound et al., 2019). A further nine genera and 18 species of Stenurothripidae are known only from fossils (ThripsWiki, 2020).

Family relationships

The family Stenurothripidae possibly does not represent a single clade, and the only analysis of morphological data indicated that Holarthrothrips might be sister-genus to the Heterothripidae (Mound & Marullo, 1999).  Molecular data derived from the gene 18S rDNA also suggested a close relationship between these taxa (Mound & Morris, 2007). The family Stenurothripidae was discussed by Bhatti (2006), but Stenurothrips Bagnall is based on a fossil specimen on which many structural details cannot be studied.

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 probably 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 (1986) A new species of Holarthrothrips from Iraq, with notes on host plants and key to species, along with clarification of the position of this genus among Thysanoptera. Zoology (Journal of Pure and Applied Zoology) 1: 1–33.

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 L, Hoddle MS & Hastings A (2019) Thysanoptera Californica. An identification and information system to thrips in California.Lucidcentral.org, Identic Pty Ltd, Queensland, Australia. https://keys.lucidcentral.org/keys/v3/thrips_of_california_2019/

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].