
Small to medium sized, brown, micropterous Phlaeothripinae. Head longer than wide, genae parallel-sided without setae; vertex without prominent sculpture lines; eyes multifaceted, ocelli well-developed; postocular setae small and pointed; maxillary stylets close together, retracted to eyes, maxillary bridge absent; mouth-cone broadly rounded. Antennae 8-segmented but VIII broadly joined to VII; segment III scarcely longer than wide with 2 small sense cones, IV with 4 small sense cones. Pronotum transverse with almost no sculpture lines; major setae small, only epimerals and posteroangular pairs clearly longer than discal setae. Meso and metanota transverse, metanotum with faint reticulation; fore wing shorter than thorax width. [the following character states not clear: prosternal basantra, ferna; mesopresternum, sternopleural sutures.] Fore tarsal tooth small but present in both sexes. Pelta small D-shaped; tergites III‒VII each with one pair of sigmoid wing-retaining setae, posterolateral setae not elongate; tergite IX setae S1 and S2 slightly longer than tube basal width; tube shorter than width of head.
The single paratype that was available for study is a specimen that was not cleared, and on which many structural features are thus not visible. The species is not a member of the Haplothripini, nor of the Liothrips-lineage, but is presumably derived from within the Phlaeothrips-lineage.
Known only from the foliage of the salt-marsh plant, Salicornia fruticosa [Amarantaceae].
The single species in this genus is recorded only from southern France.
Halothrips Bournier, 1962: 42. Type species Halothrips salicorniae Bournier, 1962, by monotypy.
Only one species is recognised in this genus (ThripsWiki, 2023).
Euro-Mediterranean species
Halothrips salicorniae Bournier, 1962
Bournier A (1962) Thysanoptères de France, II. Bulletin de la Société entomologique de France 67: 41–43.
Priesner H (1964) Ordnung Thysanoptera (Fransenflügler, Thripse). in Franz H, Bestimmungsbücher zur Bodenfauna Europas 2: 1–242. Akademie-Verlag.
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