Elixothrips Stannard & Mitri

Hoodothripiella Retana-Salazar, 2007: 23 syn. n.

The generic synonymy indicated above results from the designated type species of each of these monobasic genera being here considered as representing a single species. Retana-Salazar erected a new genus on the assumption that Hoodothripiella ignacio was the only American member of what he called “ Hoodothrips genus-group” with antennae 7-segmented, and the only species in that group with two simple sense cones on antennal segment IV. Elixothrips brevisetis also has two simple sense cones on antennal segment IV, and the 8-segmented condition is a result of a thin suture between antennal segments VI and VII, what may have not been observed in H. ignacio original description. This condition was found in several specimens of E. brevisetis collected in Amazonas, Ceará, Mato Grosso, Paraíba, Santa Catarina and Sergipe States in Brazil. Thus, both species have 8-segmented antennae with two sense cones on segment IV. In fact, an extra sense cone on segment IV is a character found in many Panchaetothripinae . Elixothrips is unusual in that the only species has the mesonotum with a complete longitudinal median division, a condition also observed in the synonym here established and shared only with Anisopilothrips venustulus and Hoodothrips brevipilus . Moreover, the apical pair of setae on tergite X have expanded apices (Fig. 106). This last character was not mentioned in the original description of H. ignacio, but is likely present as observed in an illustration of the species abdomen in the original description (Retana-Salazar 2007).