Distinguishing features

Both sexes fully winged. Body and legs uniformly brown; female with antennal segment III yellow with apical margin slightly shaded, segments II and IV brown; fore wings with posterior margin dark except for base and apex, extending forward almost to first longitudinal vein. Antennae 9-segmented, segment III with short linear sensorium, IV with sensorium more than 0.5 as long as segment and curved at apex, V–IX forming a single unit with V longer than VI–IX. Head with no long setae; pronotal posteromarginal setae stouter than pronotal discal setae. Fore tarsus apically with stout recurved ventral hamus. Metanotal sculpture forming arcuate reticulation around anterior margin. Marginal setae on sternites arising at or close to margin; sternite VII with two pairs of accessory setae arising sub-marginally.
Male with paired tubercles on tergites IV–V; tergite IX with stout, blunt and curved seta anterolateral to bifurcate claspers.

Related species

A. kuwanaii is a member of a species-complex in which the fore wing bears a longitudinal dark area along the posterior margin, with or without a transverse dark band as well. Most of the species in this group are from North America, and the separation of A. crucifer and A. hartleyi from A. kuwanaii remains unsatisfactory. These three are identical in both sexes in their detailed structure, apart from the incomplete sub-basal transverse dark band on the fore wings of A. kuwanaii, and the absence of a pair of stout setae lateral to the clasper on tergite IX of male A. hartleyi. Moreover, the records given by Bailey (1957) indicate that the two species have been collected together on several occasions. The females of A. hesperus are also similar to those of A. kuwanaii, but the males have very reduced, non-bifurcate, claspers. 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.

Biological data

Collected from the flowers of a wide range of plants, with no recorded specificity, but probably a facultative predator with a mixed diet of pollen and the larvae of other thrips.

Distribution data

California, Arizona, Nevada, Utah, Oregon, Washington, British Columbia.

Family name

AEOLOTHRIPIDAE

Species name

Aeolothrips kuwanaii Moulton

Original name and synonyms

Aeolothrips kuwanaii Moulton, 1907: 407
Aeolothrips robustus Moulton, 1907: 407
Aeolothrips longiceps Crawford DL, 1909: 101

References

Bailey SF (1957) The thrips of California Part I: Suborder Terebrantia. Bulletin of California Insect Survey 4: 143–220.

Mound LA & Marullo R (1996) The Thrips of Central and South America: An Introduction. Memoirs on Entomology, International 6: 1–488.

Thysanoptera Californica