
B. dentipes Head & pronotum
B. dentipes Antenna
B. dentipes Mesonotum to tergite II
B. dentipes ventral surface
B. cingulatus
B. insularis Prosternites
Medium sized, black or bicoloured, apterous or rarely macropterous Idolothripinae. Head usually longer than wide, projecting in front of eyes, eyes prolonged or narrowed ventrally; maxillary stylets broad, V-shaped wide apart, retracted about half-way into head. Antennae 8-segmented; segment III with 2 sense cones, IV with 3 sense cones (rarely only 2); segment VIII slender, narrowed to base. Pronotum with 5 pairs of major setae; notopleural sutures complete. Metanotum transverse, with little or no sculpture. Prosternal basantra present, usually small; ferna large; mesopresternum complete, usually boat-shaped (absent in cingulatus; slender and transverse in insularis); metathoracic sternopleural sutures absent (present in cingulatus and insularis). Male fore femur sometimes enlarged; fore tarsal tooth absent in female, present in male. Fore wing when present broad and parallel sided, with duplicated cilia. Pelta broad; tergites II–VII of apterae without sigmoid wing-retaining setae; tube slightly shorter than head; male sternite VIII without pore plate, tergite IX setae S2 as long as setae S1.
This genus is placed in the Compsothripina of the Idolothripinae, but the five genera included in that subtribe (Mound & Palmer, 1983) may represent a group of convergent taxa in which species are adapted to living at ground level. Compsothrips is the genus with species most closely similar to those of Bolothrips.
These spore-feeding species live in Europe at the base of grasses and sedges, and are thus usually found in marshy places.
Although dentipes is widespread across Europe south of Finland, the other members of this genus in Europe are from the central and southern parts of the continent. Most of the other species in the genus have been described from North America and from South Africa.
Bolothrips Priesner, 1926: 90. Type species Phloeothrips bicolor Heeger, by original designation.
Currently, 17 species are listed in this genus from around the world (ThripsWiki, 2023). Priesner (1964) provides the most recent taxonomic account of the European species listed here, but treated them under the name Nesothrips.
Euro-Mediterranean species
Bolothrips bicolor (Heeger, 1852)
Bolothrips cingulatus (Karny, 1916)
Bolothrips dentipes (Reuter, 1880)
Bolothrips icarus (Uzel, 1895)
Bolothrips insularis (Bagnall, 1914)
Bolothrips italicus Mound, 1974
Mound LA & Palmer JM (1983) The generic and tribal classification of spore-feeding Thysanoptera (Phlaeothripidae: Idolothripinae). Bulletin of the British Museum (Natural History). Entomology 46: 1–174.
Priesner H (1964) Ordnung Thysanoptera (Fransenflügler, Thripse). in Franz H, Bestimmungsbücher zur Bodenfauna Europas 2: 1–242. Akademie-Verlag.