Generic diagnosis

Female macropterous. Head wider than long; maxillary palps 3-segmented; eyes large, with 5 pigmented facets; ocellar setae I present, setae III outside triangle; five pairs of postocular setae. Antennae 8-segmented; segment I without paired dorso-apical setae, III and IV with sense-cones forked, III–VI with microtrichia on both surfaces. Pronotum with two pairs of posteroangular setae; three or four pairs of posteromarginal setae. Mesonotum with median setae far from posterior margin; campaniform sensilla present. Metanotum with longitudinal striae, concentric posteromedially; campaniform sensilla present or absent. Fore wing first vein with long gap in setal row, three distal setae; second vein with many setae; clavus with five veinal and one discal setae; posteromarginal fringe cilia wavy. Prosternal ferna weakly connected; basantra membranous, without setae; prospinasternum broad and transverse. Mesosternum with sternopleural sutures complete; endofurca with spinula. Metasternal endofurca without spinula. Tarsi 2-segmented. Tergites without craspeda or ctenidia; VIII with comb only laterally; IX with two pairs of campaniform sensilla, MD setae well developed; X with longitudinal split complete. Sternites without discal setae or craspeda; III–VII with three pairs of posteromarginal setae, II with two pairs, S1 on VII in front of margin; laterotergites without discal setae.
Male similar to female, but sometimes micropterous; sternites III–VII each with oval pore plate.

Biological data

Species of Tenothrips apparently breed in flowers, with the two recorded from China being associated with the yellow flowers of various Asteraceae.

Distribution data

Members of this genus are recorded widely across the northern hemisphere, particularly in southern Europe but with six species from California, one from South Africa and one from the Philippines.

Nomenclatural data

Taeniothrips (Tenothrips) Bhatti, 1967: 18. Type species T. (Tenothrips) alis Bhatti, 1967, by monotypy.

There are 20 species listed in this genus (ThripsWiki, 2020), including several from North America that have also been referred to a genus Ewartithrips. Two European species of Tenothrips are known from China:

discolor (Karny, 1907: 46). (Euthrips)
frici (Uzel, 1895: 126). (Physopus)

Relationship data

Thripidae sub-family Thripinae: this is a diverse group involving more than 230 genera. The relationships of Tenothrips remain unclear (Ng et al., 2019). The included species from Europe appear to be closely related to the single species in the European genus, Ceratothrips. However there is a separate radiation of rather similar looking species in California, and these are sometimes placed in the genus Ewartithrips, although that is currently considered a synonym (Bhatti, 2003).

References

Bhatti JS (2003) The genera Tenothrips and Ewartithrips (Terebrantia: Thripidae) and pigmented facets of eye in some Terebrantia. Thysanoptera 2003 (Thrips No. 2): 1–10. Delhi.

Ng YF, Ain N & Lau KH (2019) A new species of Tenothrips pollinating Dipterocarpus sublamellatus in Malaysia. Zootaxa 4695 (4): 397–400.

ThripsWiki (2020). ThripsWiki - providing information on the World's thrips. <http://thrips.info/wiki/Main_Page>