Female

Female & male

Head & thorax

Antenna

Head

Abdominal sternites IV–VI

Female tergites VII-X

Male tergites VIII-IX

Male glandular opening between sternites II and III

Distinguishing features

Both sexes without wings. Color uniformly dark brown. Antennae 8 to 9-segmented, segment VI with incomplete oblique suture producing an apparently 9-segmented condition; segments III & IV each with a simple sense cone. Head weakly reticulate; ocelli not developed, ocellar setae III as long as diameter of three ommatidia. Pronotum with no long setae, medially with little sculpture. Meso and metanota transverse. Tergites with transverse reticulation medially, tergites I–VIII with well-developed craspedum on posterior margin. Sternites III–VI with well-developed 5-lobed craspedum, the sternal posteromarginal setal pair S3 arising at the posterolateral angle of each sternite.
Male smaller and paler than female, sternite II with an internal glandular structure opening through an aperture on the antecostal margin of segment III; tergite IX with 2 pairs of short stout thorn-like setae. 

Related species

Only two species are recognized in the genus Apterothrips, of which A. apteris is essentially southern whereas A. secticornis is essentially northern (Mound & Marullo, 1996). These two are distinguished by the number of lobes on the craspeda of the abdominal sternites (Nakahara, 1988), but are otherwise very similar. The males share with those of several Neotropical Thripidae species the character state of having a single glandular area on the anterior margin of the third abdominal sternite.

Biological data

Feeding and breeding on leaves of various unrelated plants, including Erigeron [Asteraceae], Medicago [Fabaceae], Allium [Liliaceae], amd various grasses [Poaceae]. Sometimes causing leaf deformation on Medicago and garlic (Allium).

Distribution data

Distributed southward from California through Mexico and the west coast of South America to the Falkland Islands; also recorded from Western Australia, Tasmania and New Zealand (Mound & Marullo, 1996).

Family name

THRIPIDAE - THRIPINAE

Species name

Apterothrips apteris (Daniel)

Original name and synonyms

Sericothrips apteris Daniel, 1904: 285
Sericothrips stanfordii Moulton, 1907: 43
Sericothrips ineptus Ahlberg, 1922: 271
Apterothrips delamarei Bournier, 1962: 231

References

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

Nakahara S (1988) A new synonym and revised status in Apterothrips (Thysanoptera: Thripidae). Proceedings of the Entomological Society of Washington 90: 508–509.