Scirtothrips aurantii Faure

(Figs 1–3)

Scirtothrips aurantii Faure, 1929: 3

Described originally from more than 400 specimens taken from a very wide range of plants in Transvaal, Zululand and Cape Province, this species is widespread northward across Africa, through Kenya and Sudan, to Egypt and the Yemen (Mound & Palmer, 1981), and it feeds and breeds on many unrelated plants. Despite this, a population introduced to Australia has remained largely restricted to certain species of Crassulaceae, particularly Bryophyllum, although it readily transfers to, and breeds on, several other plants under experimental conditions (personal communication, Brian Garms, 2011). The males have a comb of stout setae on the hind femora, a character that is shared only with two other species in this genus, dodonaeae and mugambii .

Diagnosis. Body mainly yellow, terga and sterna with dark median area, antecostal ridges dark; antennal segments III–IV paler than V–VIII; fore wings weakly shaded with apex paler. Ocellar setae III close together on tangent between anterior margins of posterior ocelli (Fig. 1); pronotum closely striate, posteromarginal setae no more than 0.3 as long as pronotum, S2 about 1.3 times as long as S1; fore wing second vein with 3–4 setae, cilia moderately wavy; metanotum with variable elongate reticulation; tergum VIII with one or two rows of microtrichia anteromedially (Fig. 2), IX with no microtrichia posteromedially; sterna IV–VI with microtrichia covering almost entire median area (Fig. 3), sternum VII with discal microtrichia scarcely extending mesad of setal pair S1.