Print Fact SheetHoplandrothrips armiger

Distinguishing features

Both sexes fully winged. Body and legs brown, antennal segments III–VI yellow at base; fore wings pale. Antennae 8-segmented; segment III with three sense cones, IV with four sense cones; VIII constricted at base. Head longer than wide, projecting slightly in front of eyes; wider across cheeks than across eyes, cheeks with several seta-bearing small tubercles; surface reticulate; postocular setae wide apart; maxillary stylets retracted to eyes, close together medially. Pronotum reticulate; with five pairs of hyaline, capitate major setae. Fore tarsus with slender tooth. Metanotum boldly reticulated. Fore wing weakly constricted medially, with about eight duplicated cilia. Abdominal tergites II–VII with two pairs of sigmoid wing-retaining setae, also marginal setae S1 with broadly expanded asymmetric apex; tergite IX setae S1 capitate, about half as long as tube.
Male varying in size, large males with fore femora swollen, with two pointed tubercles at inner apex; sternite VIII apparently without pore plate.

Related species

Currently, over 100 species are listed in the genus Hoplandrothrips worldwide. Of these, more than 20 are described from North America, and Cott (1956) provided a key to four of the five species recorded from California. Stannard (1968) provided a key to seven species from Illinois, and Mound & Marullo (1996) a key to 18 Neotropical species. Species concepts within this, and several other, fungus feeding genera remain unclear, due to structural variation involving allometric growth patterns in one or both sexes.

Biological data

Breeding on dead branches, and feeding on unidentified fungal hyphae, particularly under bark scales of native Sycamore, Platanus racemosa [Platanaceae].

Distribution data

Known only from California.

Family name

PHLAEOTHRIPIDAE, PHLAEOTHRIPINAE

Species name

Hoplandrothrips armiger (Jones)

Original name and synonyms

Phlaeothrips armiger Jones, 1912: 23
Hoplandrothrips sycamorensis Mason, 1926: 155

References

Cott HE (1956) Systematics of the suborder Tubulifera (Thysanoptera) in California. University of California, Berkeley, Publications in Entomology 13: 1–216.

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

Stannard LJ (1968) The Thrips, or Thysanoptera, of Illinois. Bulletin of the Illinois Natural History Survey 29: 213–552.