Neosmerinthothrips turrbali Mound & Tree 2021, sp.n.
Creators: name: Mound, Laurence A.
name: Tree, Desley J.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2021
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Thysanoptera
Phlaeothripidae
Neosmerinthothrips
Neosmerinthothrips turrbali

description: Neosmerinthothrips turrbali sp.n.
(Figs 6, 18, 28, 37)
Female macroptera. Body brown to dark brown with tube darkest; legs brown, including tibiae and tarsi; antennal segments mainly brown, II paler at apex, III yellowish-brown on basal half; fore wings light brown with darker longitudinal lines; major setae all dark brown. Head about as long as wide, vertex without sculpture lines (Fig. 18); compound eyes narrowed ventrally, with 3 pigmented facets; posterior ocelli close to compound eyes; maxillary stylets retracted to po setae, arranged in a wide V-shape (Fig 18). Antennae 8-segmented, VIII slender and narrowed to short pedicel (Fig. 28); III with 2 sense cones, IV with 4; sense cones small, about 0.8 as long as apical width of their segments. Pronotum with strong median longitudinal line, 5 pairs of major setae; notopleural sutures complete. Mesonotal lateral setae small; metanotum reticulate on posteromedian half (Fig 37). Prosternal basantra not clearly developed, ferna transverse, mesopresternum complete but slender; metathoracic sternopleural sutures long. Fore tarsus without tooth. Fore wing with 10‒12 duplicated cilia. Pelta hat-shaped with stout brim (Fig. 37); median length of tergites and sternites not greatly different; tergites II–VII each with one pair of sigmoid wing-retaining setae, lateral setae increasingly elongate on posterior tergites, on IX slightly longer than tube; tube narrowing to anal ring, anal setae slightly longer than tube (Fig 6). Sternites with median row of about 12 small discal setae; posteromarginal setae shorter than sternite lengths.
Measurements (holotype female in microns). Body length 2250. Head, length 260; width 250; po setae 90. Pronotum, length 125; width 280; major setae—am 35, aa 40, ml 50, epim 90, pa 60. Fore wing length 900. Tergite VII longest lateral seta 250. Tergite IX setae—S1 215, S2 220, S3 215. Tube, length 195; maximum width 95; minimum width 45. Antennal segments III–VIII length 80, 70, 70, 65, 40, 40.
Specimens studied. Holotype female macroptera, Australia, Queensland, D’Aguilar National Park, from dead wood, 1.viii.2012 (K.M.Thomson) (in ANIC).
Paratypes: Same site as holotype, 3 female macropterae from Eucalyptus nuts, 16.ii.2012.
Comments. According to the key to Neosmerinthothrips species (Mound 1974b) this new species shares only with three other species the following character states: fore tarsal tooth absent; basal two antennal segments dark. One of these three, N. robustus (Ananthakrishnan) from India, has yellow fore femora and pale fore wings. A second species, N.affinis (Bagnall) from Sri Lanka, is known only from a single crushed specimen. The third, N. collaris (Bagnall), is recorded under four different names from the West Indies and West Africa (ThripsWiki 2021). According to the lengthy description of dominicanus (Hood), a synonym of collaris, the head is longer than wide, the fore tibiae and tarsi are yellow and the major setae on tergite IX are shorter than the tube. For these reasons N. turrbali is considered a new species. It is similar to the illustrations of N. insularis Okajima from the Ryukyu Islands of Japan, but that species has a well-developed fore tarsal tooth in both sexes. The presence or absence of the prosternal basantra is difficult to determine in this species but the prosternal chitinous islets do not seem to be fused into a pair of sclerites. One macropterous female of a very similar species to turrbali has been studied from Timor Leste, but that has fewer fore wing duplicated cilia, tergite IX setae S1 distinctly shorter than the tube, and antennal segment VIII shorter and not constricted at the base. The specific epithet refers to an original language of the people of Southeastern Queensland.
description: Published as part of Mound, Laurence A. & Tree, Desley J., 2021, Tubuliferous Thysanoptera inAustralia with an enlarged tenth abdominal segment (Phlaeothripidae, Idolothripinae), including six new species, pp. 167-181 in Zootaxa 4951 (1) on pages 173-174, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4951.1.9, http://zenodo.org/record/4655899