Caliothrips marginipennisCaliothrips marginipennisBoth sexes fully winged. Body and legs brown, tarsi yellow, also base and apex of tibiae; antennal segment III yellow, IV–V yellow at base; fore wing white with apex dark, a dark cross band following the basal third and posterior margin also dark. Antennae 8-segmented, III & IV each with a forked sense cone, VII–VIII elongate. Head and pronotum reticulate, with markings inside each reticle, without prominent setae. Metanotum reticulate, median setae wide apart. Metathoracic endofurca lyre-shaped and extending almost to mesothorax. Fore wing first vein with 2 setae on distal half, second vein with about 5 setae; postero-marginal cilia wavy. Tarsi 1-segmented; hind coxae with internal coiled apodeme. Abdominal tergites II–VIII with median pair of setae small, posterior margin with prominent craspedum that is toothed laterally; lateral thirds of tergites reticulate, reticles with internal markings. Sternites with 3 pairs of marginal setae arising anterior to broad craspedum.
Male sternites III–VII with slender transverse pore plate.
The Panchaetothripinae is a group of about 140 leaf-feeding species in 40 genera found mainly in the tropics and subtropics. The genus Caliothrips currently comprises 23 species, of which 10 are known from North America (Nakahara, 1991), mostly from the southeastern States. C. marginipennis is one of only two species in the genus in which the fore wing is extensively white.
Breeding on leaves, and apparently associated with grasses.
Recorded from California, Arizona, Texas, Mexico, and also Georgia.
THRIPIDAE - PANCHAETOTHRIPINAE
Caliothrips marginipennis (Hood)
Heliothrips marginipennis Hood, 1912: 136
Heliothrips bromi Moulton, 1927: 31
Heliothrips bishoppi Moulton, 1929: 229
Nakahara S (1991) Two new species of Caliothrips (Thysanoptera: Thripidae) and a key to the Nearctic species. Journal of the New York Entomological Society 99: 97–103.
