
Medium sized, dark but often bicoloured, usually apterous, ant-mimicking Idolothripinae. Head longer than wide, projecting in front of eyes, eyes prolonged or narrowed ventrally; maxillary stylets broad, wide apart in V-shape, retracted about half-way into head. Antennae 8-segmented; segment III usually with 2 small sense cones, but inner apical sense cone reduced or absent; segment IV with 3 sense cones but ventral one often absent; segment VIII slender, narrowed to base. Pronotum with 5 pairs of rather short major setae, midlateral pair sometimes absent; notopleural sutures complete. Metanotum sometimes reticulate but more commonly slightly elevated medially with longitudinal, closely spaced, sculpture lines. Prosternal basantra present; ferna very large; mesopresternum varied, usually boat-shaped; metathoracic sternopleural sutures usually present and particularly long. Male fore femur sometimes enlarged; fore tarsal tooth present in both sexes, large in male. Pelta broad across tergite II; tergites without wing-retaining setae; tube slightly shorter than head; male sternite VIII without pore plate, tergite IX setae S1 and S2 equally long and slender.
This is the major genus among the five genera placed in the subtribe Compsothripina of the Idolothripinae (Mound & Palmer, 1983). It seems to be the tropical equivalent of the temperate zone genus, Bolothrips.
These spore-feeding species live at the base of grasses and sedges, and they seem to behave as ant mimics running around on the ground.
The three species recorded from Europe are all known only from the Mediterranean region, whereas most members of the genus are from tropical countries.
Compsothrips Reuter, 1901: 214. Type species Phloeothrips albosignata Reuter, 1884, by monotypy.
There are 27 species listed in this genus, all from various warmer parts of the world (ThripsWiki, 2023).
Euro-Mediterranean species
Compsothrips albosignatus (Reuter, 1884)
Compsothrips maroccanus Priesner, 1964
Compsothrips uzeli (Hood, 1952)
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.