Print Fact SheetScopaeothrips bicolor

Distinguishing features

Females fully winged or with wings shorter than thorax width. Head and thorax brown, abdomen yellow with paired dark spots on tergites II–VIII; tarsi yellow, mid and hind femora and tibiae bicolored; fore wings pale. Antennae 8-segmented; segment III smaller than II or IV, without sense cones; segment IV with 2 sense cones; segments VI–VIII broadly joined. Head about as wide as long; dorsal surface tuberculate-reticulate, with 3 pairs of short, translucent capitate setae; maxillary stylets one third of head width apart. Pronotum with 5 pairs of short, translucent, fan-shaped setae, also one pair of similar setae medially in front of posterior margin; surface tuberculate. Metanotum densely tuberculate. Fore wing parallel sided; no duplicated cilia. Abdominal tergites II–VII with one pair of sigmoid wing-retaining setae, these are reduced to minor setae in short-winged individuals; paired dark areas on tergites finely tuberculate; tergite IX setae S1 shorter than width of tube.
Male wing length variable as in female.

Related species

Only two species are placed in Scopaeothrips, both living on Cactaceae of the genus Opuntia. The second species, S. unicolor Hood, has antennal segment VII narrowed at the base (Mound & Marullo, 1996).

Biological data

Breeding on green tissues rather than in the flowers of various Cactaceae including Opuntia and Rebutia.

Distribution data

Presumably originally from western USA, this thrips is recorded from California, Arizona, Texas, and Mexico, but also from Galapagos Islands and Argentina.

Family name

PHLAEOTHRIPIDAE, PHLAEOTHRIPINAE

Species name

Scopaeothrips bicolor (Hood)

Original name and synonyms

Rhopalothrips bicolor Hood, 1912: 72

References

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