Thrips darwini Mound & Masumoto 2005, sp.n.
Creators: name: Mound, Laurence A.
name: Masumoto, Masami
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2005
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Thysanoptera
Thripidae
Thrips
Thrips darwini

description: Thrips darwini sp.n.   
 Diagnosis: Female bicoloured, body and legs mainly yellow, abdominal segments VI–VIII progressively darker, IX–X dark brown; antennal segments I & III yellow, II shaded basally on inner margin, IV–V with apical half light brown, VI–VII brown; forewings weakly shaded but with apex and distal part of anterior margin pale; major setae light brown.   
 Head broader than long, vertex and ocellar region transversely striate (Fig. 18); ocellar setae III arising on outer margin of ocellar triangle near first ocellus; postocular setae I & III twice as long as setae II and IV, pair V intermediate in length. Antennae 7­segmented. Pronotum transverse, surface with many faint transverse lines but only 2 or 3 setae medially, outer postero­angular setae slightly shorter than inner pair (Fig. 18), posterior margin with 3 pairs of setae. Mesonotum with no campaniform sensilla near anterior margin. Metanotum with transverse sculpture on anterior half, equiangular on posterior, reticles with some internal markings (Fig. 19); median pair of setae not close to anterior margin; campaniform sensilla present. Forewings variable in length, first vein with about 7 setae on basal half and 3 setae on distal half; second vein with 11 to 12 setae; clavus with 5 marginal setae, terminal seta longest. Abdominal tergite I with irregular sculpture medially, remaining tergites with lines of sculpture weak or absent mesad of campaniform sensilla; tergite II with 3 lateral marginal setae, V–VIII with chaetotaxy and ctenidia typical of Thrips; tergite VIII with no posteromarginal comb but with a few very small teeth close to lateral margins (Fig. 20); tergite IX with 2 pairs of campaniform sensilla, X with median split long but not complete. Sternites and pleurotergites without discal setae, sternite II with 2 pairs of posteromarginal setae, 3 pairs of small setae at anterior margin; sternite VII median pair of setae close to posterior margin.   
Measurements of holotype female in microns: Body length 1300. Head, length 100; width 150; ocellar setae III 20. Pronotum, length 125; width 185; postero­angular setae– outer 50, inner 65. Forewing length 600. Antennal segments III–VII length 47, 45, 37, 55, 20.  
 Type material: Holotype ♀ Australia, Northern Territory, Humpty Doo, from bamboo shoots, 16.xi.1994, in ANIC.   
Paratypes: 1♀ taken with holotype; 2♀ from same host and locality, 5.xi.1996.  
 Breeding: This species has been taken on two widely separated dates from the young leaves of a bamboo species.   
 Distribution: Australia, Northern Territory.   
 Relationships: This species will track to the Philippines species, T. alius, using Palmer’s (1992) key to Oriental Thrips species, but that is a brown insect with no metanotal campaniform sensilla. Despite the presence of these campaniform sensilla, the sculpture of the metanotum and the absence of a posteromarginal comb on tergite VIII suggest that this species belongs with the T. orientalis group. No other member of Thrips genus is known with the above character states and a similar bicoloured body (cf. Bhatti, 1999b), although an undescribed member of Stenchaetothrips, also collected from bamboo near Darwin, is similar in general appearance to T. darwini.
description: Published as part of Mound, Laurence A. & Masumoto, Masami, 2005, The genus Thrips (Thysanoptera, Thripidae) in Australia, New Caledonia and New Zealand, pp. 1-64 in Zootaxa 1020 (1) on pages 20-22, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.1020.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/5049482