Neurothrips apacheNeurothrips apacheBoth sexes fully winged. Body bicolored, largely yellow with pterothorax brown and tergites II–VI with brown areas medially, also extreme apex of tube sharply brown; legs largely yellow, mid and hind tibiae with small brown mark medially; antennal segments III & VI yellow, IV–V yellow in basal half but light brown distally; fore wing pale. Antennae 8-segmented; segments III–V constricted to short apical neck, III & IV each with 3 slender sense cones; VIII closely joined to VII. Head reticulate, broader across cheeks than across eyes; cheeks with small tubercles; eyes large; postocular setae small, broadly capitate, posterior to inner margin of eye; maxillary stylets retracted to eyes, close together medially. Pronotum reticulate; five pairs of short, broadly capitate major setae. Fore tarsus with tooth; fore femora with small sub-apical tubercle on inner margin. Metanotum reticulate, with about 20 fine setae. Fore wing bent at an angle beyond sub-basal setae, narrow, parallel sided, with no duplicated cilia. Pelta quadrate, with distinctive median area of sculpture; tergites III–VII each with three pairs of flattened, sigmoid wing-retaining setae; tergite IX setae shorter than tube; anal setae considerably longer than tube.
Male smaller than female; sternite VIII with pair of small, circular pore plates.
The genus Neurothrips includes six species, three from the Neotropics, one from Mexico, and two from North America. A key to these species is provided by Mound & Marullo (1996). N. apache differs from the widespread species N. magnafemoralis in having abdominal segment X, the tube, largely yellow with only the extreme apex brown. Moreover, sternite VIII of males in N. apache has a pair of small, oval pore plates laterally.
Breeding on dead branches, and feeding on unidentified fungal hyphae.
Recorded from California and New Mexico.
PHLAEOTHRIPIDAE, PHLAEOTHRIPINAE
Neurothrips apache Hood
Neurothrips apache Hood, 1957: 58
Mound LA & Marullo R (1996) The Thrips of Central and South America: An Introduction. Memoirs on Entomology, International 6: 1–488.
