Pseudophilothrips avocadisPseudophilothrips avocadisBoth sexes fully winged. Body and legs blackish brown, antennal segment III sharply yellow; major setae black, except tergite IX setae pale; fore wing weakly shaded particularly along margins. Antennae 8-segmented; segment III with one long slender sense cone, IV with 3 such sense cones; VIII slender and slightly constricted at base. Head distinctly longer than wide; maxillary stylets retracted to eyes, close together medially; post ocular setae longer than dorsal length of eyes with apices softly rounded; mouth cone extending between fore coxae. Pronotum with five pairs of long major setae with rounded apices, posteroangular setae almost as long as median length of pronotum; epimeral sutures complete; prosternal basantra not developed, ferna present, mesopresternum divided into paired lateral triangles. Fore tarsus without a tooth. Metanotum with elongate reticulation, median setae longer than distance between their bases. Fore wing parallel sided, with about 25 duplicated cilia; three sub-basal setae sub-equal in length. Tergite IX setae S1 finely acute, about as long as tube.
Male similar to female; tergite IX setae S2 as long as S1; sternite VIII without a pore plate.
P. avocadis is not known from California, but is included here because it is a potential invader given the expanding avocado cultivation in the State. It is similar in color, size and many details to the hollyhock thrips, P. varicornis, but the fore wings lack a dark median longitudinal line. This species was transferred from the genus Liothrips by Mound et al. (2010), and currently the genus Pseudophilothrips comprises 13 species from the Neotropics, of which varicornis extends northwards into California.
Breeding on the leaves of Persea species [Lauraceae].
Known only from Panama and Costa Rica, and not recorded from California.
PHLAEOTHRIPIDAE, PHLAEOTHRIPINAE
Pseudophilothrips avocadis (Hood)
Liothrips avocadis Hood, 1935: 97
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 LA, Wheeler G & Williams DA (2010) Resolving cryptic species with morphology and DNA; thrips as a potential biocontrol agent of Brazilian peppertree, with a new species and overview of Pseudophilothrips (Thysanoptera). Zootaxa 2432: 59–68.
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.
