Scirtothrips aztecus Johansen and Mojica-Guzmán, 1998

Rodríguez-Arrieta, Jesús Alexander, Cambero-Campos, Octavio Jhonathan & González-Hernández, Héctor, 2024, Taxonomic changes in Scirtothrips species (Thysanoptera: Thripidae) from México, Zootaxa 5489 (1), pp. 173-183 : 176

Scirtothrips aztecus Johansen and Mojica-Guzmán, 1998

Scirtothrips tlaxcoensis Johansen and Mojica-Guzmán, 1998: 64–65 syn. n.

The types of both species deposited in the IBUNAM are from a single field trip from Michoacán, except for two paratypes of S. aztecus collected in the State of Puebla. The female specimens are similar (authors' descriptions, pages 39 and 64). Both S. tlaxcoensis and S. aztecus show a more extended mouth cone and a dark antecostal line is noticeable on tergites II–VIII. The species S. aztecus has not been related to a specific host, though the areas surrounding where it has been reported indicate an allopatric distribution with S. perseae . Scirtothrips perseae remains facultative in lowland cultivar areas of P. americana , while S. aztecus are from medium altitudes with more natural vegetation. As Johansen & Mojica-Guzmán (1998) indicated, the interocellar setae (ocellar III) length of S. aztecus is shorter, but it correlates to the rest of the chaetotaxy. The species S. aztecus also differs from S. perseae by the position of metanotal setae, emerging from the anterior line, unlike S. perseae , and located further back. Discal microtrichia setae are not present on tergite IX in S. aztecus .