Aeolothrips hesperusAeolothrips hesperusBoth sexes fully winged. Body and legs uniformly brown; female with antennal segment III brownish yellow and brown in apical third, segments II and IV brown; fore wings with posterior margin dark band extending from apex to (but not including) clavus, with no transverse dark band. Antennae 9-segmented, sensorium on segment III very short, almost oval, on IV about 0.3 as long as segment, V–IX forming a single unit with V about equal to VI–IX. Head with no long setae; pronotal posteromarginal setae not stouter than pronotal discal setae. Fore tarsus apically with stout recurved ventral hamus. Metanotum with bold equiangular reticulation medially. Marginal setae on sternites arising at or close to margin except laterally; sternite VII two pairs of accessory setae arising well in front of margin.
Male without paired tubercles on tergites IV–V; tergite IX with small, non-bifurcate claspers and without a stout curved seta laterally.
A. hesperus is a member of a species-complex in which the fore wing bears a longitudinal dark area along the posterior margin. The females of A. hesperus are similar to those of A. kuwanaii but with a considerably smaller sensorium on antennal segment III, and the male has smaller claspers than any other known species. About 105 species are placed currently in the genus Aeolothrips. Most of these are from the Palaearctic Region (including the Mediterranean, Iran and northern India, but with five species extending through eastern Africa to South Africa), with about 30 species from the Nearctic (mainly western USA). Only one species of this genus is known from the Neotropics, A. fasciatipennis described from Chile, but Mound & Marullo (1996) indicate this is probably the same as A. fasciatus.
Swept from various plants with no information on specificity, and presumably a facultative predator in flowers.
California, Mexico, Texas.
AEOLOTHRIPIDAE
Aeolothrips hesperus Bailey
Aeolothrips hesperus Bailey, 1951: 58
Bailey SF (1951) The genus Aeolothrips Haliday in North America. Hilgardia 21: 43–80.
Mound LA & Marullo R (1996) The Thrips of Central and South America: An Introduction. Memoirs on Entomology, International 6: 1–488.
