Stephanothrips bradleyiStephanothrips bradleyiBoth sexes wingless. Body and legs brown, tube paler, antennal segments I–II yellow, III shading to brown at apex. Antennae short, 5-segmented; segment III large (due to fusion of three morphological segments), V constricted at base. Head longer than wide, cheeks straight, anterior margin with four large pale setae arising from prominent tubercles; dorsal surface with many small setae on tubercles, postocular setae not distinguished; compound eyes small, reduced to about five ommatidia; maxillary stylets retracted to eyes, close together medially. Pronotum with one pair of prominent setae, at posterior angles. Fore tarsi with no tooth. Meso and metanotum transverse with small setae on tubercles. Abdominal tergite IX longer than wide; tube longer than head, with long anal setae.
Male similar to female but smaller.
The genus Stephanothrips includes 32 described species, mainly from Southeast Asia (Mound & Tree, 2018), but with three from eastern USA, one from Texas and S. bradleyi from California.
Breeding on dead branches, or possibly in leaf litter, and feeding on unidentified fungal hyphae.
Recorded only from California.
PHLAEOTHRIPIDAE, PHLAEOTHRIPINAE
Stephanothrips bradleyi Hood
Stephanothrips bradleyi Hood, 1927: 204
Mound LA & Tree DJ (2018) Fungus-feeding thrips of the genus Stephanothrips in Australia (Thysanoptera, Phlaeothripinae). Zootaxa 4442 (1): 181–186.
