Teuchothrips minor Bagnall

Mound, Laurence A., 2008, Identification and host associations of some Thysanoptera Phlaeothripinae described from Australia pre- 1930, Zootaxa 1714, pp. 41-60 : 53

Teuchothrips minor Bagnall

Teuchothrips minor Bagnall, 1929: 193

Collected by W.W. Froggatt at Port Macquarie on 3.ii. 1900, the original host data was given as “in spirally curled leaf of Melaleuca ”. However, this is probably a misidentification, because recent field work has found this thrips at several widely separated sites in curled leaves of the small tree, Callistemon saligna . This tree has the typical “paper-bark” associated with Melaleuca species, and moreover has small pale inflorescences. Some of the recent collections are from cultivated specimens of C. saligna around Canberra, but it has also been taken in curled leaves on the same tree species in native forest on the north coast of New South Wales near Lismore, and also in Brisbane Forest Park, in southern Queensland. The thrips is a distinctive species, with short and capitate postocular and pronotal setae, and pale antennal segments III –VI with only two sensoria on segment IV. In both sexes a small tubercle is present at the inner apex of the fore tibiae, and tergite IX setae S 1 and S 2 are capitate and about 1.2 times as long as the basal width of the tube. The male has a glandular area on sternite VIII anterior to the discal setae. Many specimens are micropterous, but the macropterae lack duplicated cilia on the forewings.