
Small to medium sized, brown or weakly bicoloured, apterous Phlaeothripinae with sculptured body. Head about as long as wide with no ocelli; eyes reduced ventrally with less than 20 facets dorsally; postocular setae not developed; genae weakly convex, narrowed to base, with many short, pale, stout setae; maxillary stylets close together and retracted to eyes, maxillary bridge absent; mouth-cone finely pointed, extended across prosternum. Antennae 7-segmented; segment III with no sense cones, IV with 1 sense cone ventrally; VI broad at apex, VII broad at base. Pronotum wider than long; five pairs of major setae usually scarcely larger than discal setae but with broad apices, epimeral setae largest with apex funnel-shaped; notopleural sutures incomplete. Meso and metanota transverse, with many small setae. Prosternal basantra absent, ferna large but widely separated; mesopresternum absent, anterior margin of mesoeusternum deeply eroded, sternopleural sutures broadly eroded. Fore tarsal tooth absent in females, long and pointed in males. Pelta transverse with median transverse sculpture line; tergal wing-retaining setae absent; tergites III‒VIII with posterolateral pair of setae fan-shaped, tergite IX setae S1 and S2 about as long as tube basal width; tube shorter than head. Male sternite VIII without pore plate, tergite IX setae similar to female.
As with many wingless Phlaeothripinae, the number of antennal sense cones is reduced and the prosternites weakly sclerotised, making relationships of this genus difficult to assess.
These species are presumably fungus feeding, but most of the few known specimens were collected as isolated individuals from dead leaves and dead branches.
One species of this genus is known from South Africa, India and Iran (Minaei, 2013), but the second listed species is known only from a single female taken in southern Morocco.
Idiothrips Faure, 1933: 59. Type species Idiothrips bellus Faure, 1933, by monotypy.
Only two species are recognised in this genus (ThripsWiki, 2023).
Euro-Mediterranean species
Idiothrips bellus Faure, 1933
Idiothrips maghrebinus zur Strassen, 1968
Minaei K (2013) The Phlaeothrips-lineage of fungus feeding thrips (Thysanoptera: Phlaeothripidae) in Iran with a new species of Hindsiothrips. Zootaxa 3599(3): 279–290.
ThripsWiki (2023). ThripsWiki - providing information on the World's thrips. <http://thrips.info/wiki/Main_Page>
zur Strassen R, (1968) Oekologische und zoogeographische Studien uber die Fransenflugler-Fauna (Ins., Thysanoptera) des sudlichen Marokko. Abhandlungen der senckenbergischen naturforschenden Gesellschaft 515: 1–125.