Anisopilothrips venustulus

Distinguishing features

Female fully winged. Body brown to yellowish brown, abdomen often yellow, antennal segments I-VI largely yellow with brown apices; tarsi yellow, hind tibiae yellow with small brown area, mid and fore tibiae yellow at base and apex; fore wings brown with small pale cross bands subasally, medially and at apex. Head with cheeks convex. Antennae 8-segmented, III and IV with sense cone simple, VIII twice as long as VII. Pronotum reticulate, anterior angles flattened and protruding. Pterothorax and abdominal segment II strongly constricted to a wasp waist. Mesonotum with complete median longitudinal division. Metanotum with indistinct sculptured triangle, with one pair of major setae arising near anterior margin. Fore wing curved forward at apex, first vein with about five dark setae and two setae distally; second vein with a row of widely spaced setae. Abdominal tergite II with extensive anterolateral areas of recurved claw-like microtrichia; tergites and sternites III-VII with paired submedian areas of areolar sculpture; VIII with broad transparent craspedum, setae less than half length of X; median split on X complete.

Related species

Anisopilothrips is one of a group of genera that is referred to as the Tryphactothripini (Wilson, 1975; Mound et al., 2001), in which the species have the second abdominal tergite bearing  a group of stoutly recurved, claw-like, microtrichia laterally. This genus shares with Elixothrips, another monobasic tropical tramp, the presence of a complete longitidinal division on the mesonotum.

Biological data

Leaf-feeding, and possibly polyphagous, but with no particular host plant recorded as bearing larvae.

Distribution data

Recorded widely around the tropics, but particularly from the Caribbean area. It is not recorded from California, but has been taken by Californian quarantine on plants imported from Hawaii.

Family name

THRIPIDAE - PANCHAETOTHRIPINAE

Species name

Anisopilothrips venustulus (Priesner)

Original name and synonyms

Heliothrips venustulus Priesner, 1923: 89.
Astrothrips angulatus Hood, 1925: 50.

References

Mound LA, Marullo R & Trueman JWH (2001) The greenhouse thrips, Heliothrips haemorrhoidalis, and its generic relationships within the sub-family Panchaetothripinae (Thysanoptera; Thripidae). Journal of Insect Systematics and Evolution 32: 1–12.

Wilson TH (1975) A monograph of the subfamily Panchaetothripinae (Thysanoptera: Thripidae). Memoirs of the American Entomological Institute 23: 1–354.