Gynaikothrips Zimmermann

Gynaikothrips Zimmermann, 1900: 13 The origin and history of this genus is confusing, but the origin of its name is now accepted as being based on Figure 4 in Zimmerman (1900) for which the figure legend was Gynaikothrips uzeli . This was the only species included under that generic name at that time, but on the previous page the species was described under the name Mesothrips uzeli, a situation that is now considered to be a lapsus. Many species were subsequently described in Gynaikothrips, 11 of them from Taiwan that are all now placed in other genera. Currently there are 41 species listed in Gynaikothrips (ThripsWiki 2020), all from the Asian tropics, but only two of these are known from Taiwan. These two species are both found widely around the world galling or folding the leaves of Ficus species (Tree et al. 2015). The head is longer than wide with the maxillary stylets retracted only into the basal one third, the pronotum often has twisted transverse striae forming several rounded or oval spots, and the fore tarsal tooth is well-developed in males but smaller or even absent in females.