Liothrips konoiLiothrips konoiDescribed under the name brevitubus, this species remains known only from the original three micropterous females taken at Calexico, California. These were described as “apterous”, but the fore wing lobe is clearly visible on these specimens, 180 microns long, deeply shaded and bearing three stout black sub-basal setae. These setae are similar to the postocular and pronotal setae in having the apices paler and smoothly spoon-shaped rather than capitate. In the original description the species was compared to lepidus Cott, but that species is known only from macropterae, as are most of the 11 species of Liothrips recorded from California (Hoddle et al. 2012). There is a possibility that the konoi specimens might eventually be recognised as micropterae of one of the other species that are currently known only from macropterae.
With almost 280 described species, Liothrips is one of the three largest genera of Thysanoptera. However, in comparison to both Thrips and Haplothrips it involves far greater problems for species recognition and systematics. A particularly high proportion of the described species are known from single samples, or even single individuals, resulting in little knowledge of host relationships or of structural variation within and between species. L. konoi was described as having the tube "slightly shorter" than L. lepidus , although the author gave no evidence of having studied specimens of the latter species. The general assumption that most members of the genus are host-specific requires validation. Stannard (1957) listed 32 species of Liothrips from North America, and subsequently (Stannard, 1968) included 14 of these in his keys to the Illinois fauna. Cott (1957) treated 11 species from California, including two that he placed in Rhynchothrips, but currently from this State there are 13 Liothrips species listed (Hoddle et al., 2004) of which several cannot at present be recognized.
Presumably breeding on leaves, and described from three females taken from "willow".
Known only from California.
PHLAEOTHRIPIDAE, PHLAEOTHRIPINAE
Liothrips konoi Mound, Goldarazena, Lopez-Guillen & Hance
Cott HE (1956) Systematics of the suborder Tubulifera (Thysanoptera) in California. University of California, Berkeley, Publications in Entomology 13: 1–216.
Hoddle M, Mound LA & Nakahara S (2004) Thysanoptera recorded from California, USA: a checklist. Florida Entomologist 87: 317–323.
Mound L, Goldarazena A, Lopez-Guillen G & Hance T (2016) Replacement names for two homonyms of Liothrips brevitubus Karny: one from California, the other for a species damaging Jatropha crops in Mexico. Zootaxa 4208 (6): 594–599.
Stannard LJ (1957) The phylogeny and classification of the North American genera of the sub-order Tubulifera (Thysanoptera). Illinois Biological Monographs 25: 1–200.
Stannard LJ (1968) The Thrips, or Thysanoptera, of Illinois. Bulletin of the Illinois Natural History Survey 29: 213–552.