Cartomothrips browniCartomothrips browniFemale fully winged. Body, legs and antennae dark brown, antennal segments III slightly paler; fore wings pale with extreme base and clavus dark. Antennae 8-segmented; segments III & IV each with 3 short and broadly based sense cones; VIII not narrowed to base. Head slightly longer than wide; cheeks confluent with eyes, sharply constricted to sub-basal neck; posterior margin with two projections; postocular setae wide apart and far behind eyes, bluntly pointed; dorsal surface with narrow transverse reticulation; maxillary stylets retracted almost to eyes, close together medially. Pronotum short, not strongly sculptured; only epimeral setae elongate; epimeral sutures complete. Prosternal ferna not developed; basantra large; mesopresternum with pair of lateral triangles and subcircular median area. Fore tarsus with tooth. Metanotum reticulate, sternopleural sutures long. Fore wings broad, parallel sided; 40–50 duplicated cilia present. Pelta reticulate; tergites II–VII with 2 pairs of sigmoid wing-retaining setae, II–III with one or two extra pairs of curved setae anterolaterally; tergite IX setae blunt, S1 shorter than tube.
Male similar to female, but variable in body size; large male with fore femora swollen, tarsal tooth broad and as long as tarsal width; tergite IX setae S2 stout and very short, scarcely 25 microns long; sternite VIII largely occupied by pore plate.
There are six species recognised in the genus Cartomothrips, five from Australia and one known only from New Zealand. However, C. browni has been distributed widely by the trade in Eucalyptus seeds to many places where these trees have been introduced. It is unique among the species of this genus for having exceptionally broad sense cones on antennal segments III and IV.
Breeding and pupating within old seed capsules of various Eucalyptus species.
Originally from Eastern Australia, but widely distributed among planted Eucalyptus in New Zealand, Kenya, Brazil, and USA (California).
PHLAEOTHRIPIDAE, PHLAEOTHRIPINAE
Cartomothrips browni Stannard
Cartomothrips browni Stannard, 1962: 39
Treherniella niger Moulton, 1968: 123.
Mound LA & Walker AK (2012) The Australia-New Zealand connection re-visited, with two new species of Cartomothrips (Thysanoptera, Phalaeothripidae). Zootaxa 3487: 58–64.
