Bhattithrips dahmsi Mound

Mound, Laurence A., 2009, New taxa and new records of Australian Panchaetothripinae (Thysanoptera, Thripidae), Zootaxa 2292, pp. 25-33 : 31

Bhattithrips dahmsi Mound

This species was described from two females and one male collected at two sites in south eastern Queensland. However, single females identified as this species have now been studied from three sites in northern Queensland, Mossman, Cape Tribulation and Cape York. The antennae of the type specimens are unusually variable. In the holotype, segments V–VIII are fused, but in the female paratype there are distinct sutures between these segments. On segment IV of all three original specimens the sensorium is Y-shaped, but the length of the basal stem of the Y varies from short with the distal arms slender and curving around the base of the succeeding segment, to as long as the distal arms of the sensorium with these arms then less curved. On segment III, the sensorium is simple on both antennae of the female paratype, but on the holotype and male paratype this sensorium is simple on one antenna but forked on the other. One female from Mossman and two females from Cape Tribulation and Cape York have both sensoria forked from a short stem, long and curving around the base of the next segment. In the Cape Tribulation female, the distal segments are distinct from each other with the base of VI constricted, whereas in the Cape York female, the distal segments of the right antenna are completely fused, but those of the left antenna are distinguished by weak sutures.