Rhipiphorothrips cruentatusRhipiphorothrips cruentatusBody dark brown, antennae and legs largely yellow, fore wing pale with yellow veins. Head with complex irregular sculpture, with a transverse ridge near posterior and basal reticulate collar; cheeks sharply incut behind eyes and constricted to basal neck. Antennae 8-segmented; segments III & IV each with a simple sense cone; VIII more than twice as long as VII. Pronotum with no long setae. Mesonotum with complete longitudinal division. Metanotum with well developed reticulate triangle, 1 pair of minute setae near posterior, 1 pair of campaniform sensilla. Tarsi 1-segmented. Fore wing apex rounded with 2 slender cilia; anterior margin with no cilia, posteromarginal cilia straight; veinal setae minute. Abdominal tergites III–VIII with grooved medially, with 1 pair of strong median setae; tergites strongly sculptured laterally; VIII with posteromarginal comb of long microtrichia, absent medially; X with complete longitudinal division; sternal marginal setae minute.
Male with small circular pore plate on anterior margin of sternites III–VII; abdominal segment IV laterally with small pointed tubercle.
Five species are currently recognised in the genus Rhipiphorothrips. Two little known species from Africa and one from China have forked sensoria on antennal segments III & IV, whereas in the two widespread Oriental species these are simple. In R. pulchellus the pronotum is yellow, and the male does not have a tubercle laterally on abdominal segment IV. The species of this genus are remarkable amongst Panchaetothripinae for the curiously irregular sculpture on the head.
Breeding on, and often damaging, older leaves rather than newly emerged foliage, of many different plants, including grapes, roses, Anacardium occidentale, Juglans, Syzygium, Terminalia, and Ricinus.
Originally from the Old World tropics, and widespread in India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, and Afghanistan, but a potential immigrant to the New World in the horticultural trade.
THRIPIDAE - PANCHAETOTHRIPINAE
Rhipiphorothrips cruentatus Hood
Rhipiphorothrips cruentatus Hood, 1919: 94
Rhipiphorothrips karna Ramakrishna, 1928: 252
Wilson TH (1975) A monograph of the subfamily Panchaetothripinae (Thysanoptera: Thripidae). Memoirs of the American Entomological Institute 23: 1–354.
