
Lispothrips Head & pronotum
Lispothrips Prosternites
Lispothrips Antenna
Lispothrips Metanotum & pelta
Small, micropterous (rarely winged) Phlaeothripinae with body,legs and antennae dark brown but antennal segment III yellowish brown. Head as wide as long, with or without weak and irregular transverse markings; genae with a few small stout setae, weakly convex behind large eyes; postocular setae also one pair of setae on vertex pale and stout with blunt apices; maxillary stylets retracted to postocular setae, one-fifth of head width apart with maxillary bridge; mouth cone broadly pointed. Antennae 8-segmented, III with no obvious sense cones but with 1 or 2 stout pale setae; segment IV with 2 sense cones; VIII with base narrower than apex of VII. Pronotum smooth, with 5 pairs of short, pale major setae with apices blunt; notopleural sutures incomplete. Mesonotal lateral setae small and blunt; metanotum with weak sculpture, median setae pale, small and blunt. Prosternal basantra not developed; ferna moderate in size and wide apart; mesopresternum absent or reduced to small median sclerite; sternopleural sutures not developed. Fore tarsal tooth absent in both sexes. Fore wing usually reduced to small basal lobe. Pelta broadly D-shaped across tergite II, reticulate, with pair of campaniform sensilla; tergites II–VII of microptera with wing-retaining setae small and bluntly pale, hemimacropterous female with these setae pale and sigmoid at least on tergite V; tergite IX setae S1 and S2 pale and blunt, about half as long as tube, tube slightly shorter than head. Male tergite IX setae S2 pointed and about as long as S1 setae; sternite VIII apparently without any pore plate.
The relationships of this genus are far from clear. From their general appearance, the species might be considered unusual wingless members of the genus Liothrips. However, the lack of sense cones on antennal segment III and the presence of only two sense cones on segment IV, also the unusually short pronotal setae, might suggest a different derivation, such as from fungus-feeding members of the Phlaeothrips-lineage.
Species of this genus are recorded mainly from the bark of Populus and Salix trees, but with no clear indication concerning their feeding habits.
The type species of this genus is apparently known only from the original specimen collected in Finland (Priesner, 1964). However, crassipes is widely recorded between Scandinavia and northern Italy. The other four species are all from north-eastern America.
Lispothrips Reuter, 1899: 26. Type species Lispothrips wasastjernae Reuter, 1899, by monotypy.
Only six species are placed in this genus (ThripsWiki, 2023).
Euro-Mediterranean species
Lispothrips wasastjernae Reuter, 1899
Lispothrips crassipes (Jablonowski, 1894)
Gertsson CA (2016) An annotated checklist of Thysanoptera (thrips) from the Nordic countries. Entomologisk Tidskrift 136 (4): 185–195.
Priesner H (1930) Die Thysanopteren-Typen O.M. Reuters. Deutsches entomologisches Zeitung 1930: 33–43.
Priesner H (1964) Ordnung Thysanoptera (Fransenflügler, Thripse). in Franz H, Bestimmungsbücher zur Bodenfauna Europas 2: 1–242. Akademie-Verlag.
ThripsWiki (2023). ThripsWiki - providing information on the World's thrips. <http://thrips.info/wiki/Main_Page>