Generic diagnosis

Female macropterous. Head wider than long, vertex weakly reticulate; ocellar setae pair I present, pair III between posterior ocelli; four pairs of postocular setae; maxillary palps 3-segmented. Antennae 8-segmented, segment I without paired dorso-apical setae; III and IV with sense-cones forked. Pronotum wider than long, more or less reticulate, no long posteroangular setae. Mesonotum median pair of setae far from posterior margin; anterior campaniform sensilla present. Metanotal sculpture varied, irregularly reticulate; median setal pair behind anterior margin; campaniform sensilla absent. Fore wing anterior marginal cilia arise ventrally slightly behind wing margin; wing apex with two elongate setae, veinal setae all very small; first vein with wide gap in setal row, two setae on distal half; second vein with complete row of setae; clavus with four or five veinal and one discal setae; posteromarginal fringe cilia wavy. Prosternal ferna undivided; basantra membranous and without setae. Mesosternal endofurca with spinula; metasternal endofurca narrowly U-shaped and reaching mesothorax. Tarsi 2-segmented. Tergites without ctenidia or craspeda, with transverse or reticulate markings laterally usually bearing internal dots or wrinkles; tergite VIII with comb medially; IX with two pairs of campaniform sensilla, one pair MD setae; X median split absent or present. Sternites without discal setae; III–VII with 3 pairs of posteromarginal setae, II with 2 pairs; sternite VII with all setae at posterior margin.
Male similar to female, sternites without pore plates.

Biological data

Species in this genus breed on leaves; one widespread species has been associated with banana leaves, but in southern China one variable species was found breeding on Lophatherum gracile [Poaceae] (Wang & Tong, 2017).

Distribution data

This is a southeast Asian genus, but with some species distributed around the world. The single species recorded from southern China was described from Japan.

Nomenclatural data

Asprothrips Crawford, 1938: 109. Type species Asprothrips raui Crawford, 1938, by monotypy; a synonym of Euthrips seminigricornis Girault.

This genus comprises eight species, all originally from southeast Asia (ThripsWiki, 2020), with five species recorded from China:

atermaculosus Wang & Tong, 2017: 21.
bimaculatus Michel & Ryckewaert, 2014: 500.
bucerus Tong, Wang & Mirab-balou, 2016: 182.
fuscipennis Kudo, 1984: 487.
punctulosus Tong, Wang & Mirab-balou, 2016: 185.

Relationship data

Thripidae sub-family Dendrothripinae: This sub-family comprises 105 species (ThripsWiki, 2020), almost all Old World in origin, and all with the metathoracic furca elongate, extending to the mesothorax. Asprothrips is one of 12 genera currently recognised in this group (Mound & Tree, 2015). The species of Asprothrips share with Dendrothrips species the ventral position of the fore wing anteromarginal cilia, but the wing apex bears a pair of setae, and the tergal median setae are small and wide apart.

References

Mound LA & Tree DJ (2016) Genera of the leaf-feeding Dendrothripinae (Thysanoptera, Thripidae), with new species from Australia and Sulawesi, Indonesia. Zootaxa 4109 (5): 569–582.

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

Wang ZH & Tong XL (2017) Variation in colour markings of an unusual new Asprothrips species from China (Thysanoptera: Thripidae). ZooKeys 716: 19–28.