Thrips is a Latin word derived from the Greek for wood louse, and is used in both the singular and plural. Thrip is not a correct term. Thrips are typically small, slender bodied insects around 0.5-15 mm in length. Although winged, thrips are poor fliers but can be transported long distances by winds especially those associated with storm fronts. The majority of thrips feed on plant juices.
Some species are predators, others feed on pollen, fungi, decaying vegetation, or are omnivorous.
Thrips have unusual mouthparts, in that they only have one mandible. This single mandible is used like a needle to puncture plant tissue from which food and liquids are siphoned into the mouth through a straw like structure, which is formed from moveable appendages around the mouth. Female Scirtothrips lay eggs singly in an incision made into soft plant tissue with the ovipositor and eggs are kidney shaped and whitish-yellow in color. Following egg hatch, developing thrips pass through two actively feeding immature stages called larvae. All thrips species have more than one pupal stage.