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Print Fact SheetUzelothripidae

Australian fauna

The only known living species of this Family has been collected rarely in Australia, near Brisbane, and is probably introduced from the Neotropics.

Biology

The only known species in this family breeds on dead twigs, where it presumably feeds on fungal hyphae.

Geographic distribution

Described originally from Belem at the mouth of the Amazon river in northern Brazil, U. scabrosus has also been found breeding at several sites in Singapore over a period of more than 25 years. In Australia, near Brisbane, four wingless females were collected from Eucalyptus bark in 2009, but despite extensive searching it has not been found elsewhere (Tree, 2009).   

Recognition

The structure of the antennae of the two known species of Uzelothripidae is unique amongst Thysanoptera. The terminal (seventh) segment is at least 30 times as long as wide, and the third segment bears a circular sensorium ventrally. Adults are very small, usually wingless, and have the body surface strongly sculptured with a prominently lobed craspedum on the posterior margin of each tergite. The pronotum is trapezoidal, with two pairs of broadly capitate posteroangular setae, and females do not have an external serrate ovipositor.

Genus and species diversity

Uzelothrips scabrosus is the only known living member of the family Uzelothripidae, although a very similar species, eocenicus, is known only as a fossil.

Family relationships

The systematic relationships of Uzelothrips are obscure. The fore wings bear setae with the cilia arising from sockets, and the tentorium is well developed within the head (Mound et al., 1980). These character states all indicate a relationship to the Terebrantian families, rather than to the Phlaeothripidae, despite the absence of an external ovipositor in females. Uzelothrips may possibly represent a very early offshoot from the Protothysanoptera, and Bhatti (2006) placed it in its own superfamily, Uzelothripoidea.  

Thysanoptera systematics

The classification adopted here is a compromise between practicality and the ideal of  reflecting 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 (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.

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

Tree DJ (2009) Disjunct distribution of Uzelothripidae (Thysanoptera) new to Australia. Zootaxa 2207: 67–68. http://www.mapress.com/zootaxa/2009/f/zt02207p068.pdf