Aeolothrips nasturtiiAeolothrips nasturtiiFemale with banded wings; median pale band shorter than distal dark band. Body and legs brown, antennal segment III yellow with only extreme apex dark, IV slightly paler at base. Antennae 9-segmented, segment III long and slender with linear sensorium about 0.25 as long as segment, IV with sensorium less than 0.5 as long as segment and curved distally; segment VI slightly constricted at base and thus V–IX not forming a single unit, with V clearly shorter than VI–IX. Head and pronotum with no long setae. Fore tarsus apically with stout recurved ventral hamus. Median marginal setae on sternites arising at or close to margin but lateral pairs arise on disc; sternite VII with two pairs of accessory setae arising medially on sternite.
A. nasturtii is possibly a member of the A. fasciatus group, but with antennal segment VI clearly constricted at the base, and segment V shorter than VI–IX. Because the male remains unknown, the identity of A. nasturtii continues to be problematical. 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 a wide range of flowers and grasses, with no information on specificity. Presumably flower-living as a facultative predator with a mixed diet of pollen and the larvae of other thrips.
Although described from California, this species is considered by Bailey (1951) to be widespread across the USA north of Georgia and California, and into Canada.
AEOLOTHRIPIDAE
Aeolothrips nasturtii Jones
Aeolothrips nasturtii Jones, 1912: 2
Aeolothrips tuolumnei Moulton, 1927: 187
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.
