Generic diagnosis

Female macropterous. Body almost white, anterior margin of head brown; fore wings pale with clavus shaded and two weakly shaded transverse bands; antennal segments VI–VII sharply brown. Head with anterior margin recessed; ocellar setae minute, pair III arise between posterior ocelli. Antennae 7-segmented; segments III and IV each with a simple sense cone; segment VI broad at base. Pronotum with weak sculpture lines; 4 pairs of posteromarginal setae, posteroangular pair twice as long as posteromarginals. Mesonotum median setae small and near middle of sclerite, anterior campaniform sensilla absent. Metanotum with elongate reticulation, median pair of setae far behind anterior margin, campaniform sensilla absent. Fore wing with veinal setae minute, cilia arising ventrally but close to anterior margin. Prosternal ferna undivided; basantra membranous, without setae; prospinasternum broad and transverse. Mesosternum with sternopleural sutures incomplete; endofurca with weak spinula. Metasternal endofurca narrowly lyre-shaped, extending to mesothorax. Mid and hind tarsi 1-segmented. Tergites with fine sculpture lines within main reticulations; median pair of tergal setae small; tergite IX large with apical major setae short and arising from pair of small tubercles, tergite X with no longitudinal split. Sternites without discal setae, III–VII each with three pairs of small setae arising at margin.
Male not known.

Biological data

The species of this genus are unusual amongst Dendrothripinae in living on the leaves of grasses rather than broad-leaved plants.

Distribution data

The available evidence suggests that this genus has a discontinuous distribution, with one species in South Africa but the other in Northern Australia and Southeast Asia, including southern China (Zhang et al. 2018).

Nomenclatural data

Edissa Faure, 1953: 194. Type species Edissa flava Faure, 1953, by monotypy.

Only two species are included in this genus (ThripsWiki, 2020), with one from Northern Australia and Southeast Asia including China:

steinerae Mound, 1999: 196

Relationship data

Thripidae sub-family Dendrothripinae: Edissa is one of 12 genera currently recognised in this group (Mound & Tree, 2015). This sub-family comprises 105 species (ThripsWiki, 2020), almost all Old World in origin. All species have the metathoracic furca elongate, extending to the mesothorax. Within this subfamily, the species of Edissa are unusual in having the antennae with only seven segments on which III and IV have simple sense cones, and the median setae on the tergites are small and wide apart.

References

Mound LA (1999) Saltatorial leaf-feeding Thysanoptera (Thripidae, Dendrothripinae) in Australia and New Caledonia, with newly recorded pests of ferns, figs and mulberries. Australian Journal of Entomology 38: 257–273.

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

Zhang SM, Wang ZH, Li YJ & Mound LA (2018) One new species, two generic synonyms and eight new records of Thripidae from China (Thysanoptera). Zootaxa 4418 (4): 370–378.