Karnyothrips Watson, 1923

Cavalleri, Adriano, Lindner, Mariana F. & Mendonça Jr, Milton de S., 2016, New Neotropical Haplothripini (Thysanoptera: Phlaeothripidae) with a key to Central and South American genera, Journal of Natural History 50, pp. 1389-1410 : 1405

Karnyothrips Watson

Type species: Karynia weigeli Watson.

Almost 50 species are included in this genus, most of them described from the New World (ThripsWiki 2015). It is probably polyphyletic, with several species not well differentiated from Apterygothrips species ( Mound and Minaei 2007). Some Karnyothrips species are very similar to Haplothrips , but antennal segment IV usually has three sense cones or fewer, and the fore tarsi bear a small tooth. The anal setae of some species are unusually longer than the tube, and those species from the Neotropics often exhibit a well-developed male pore plate on sternite VIII ( Mound and Marullo 1996). The members of this group are probably all predatory on small arthropods ( Mound and Marullo 1996; Mound and Minaei 2007). The species Karnyothrips grassoi comb. nov. (De Santis) was originally described in Adraneothrips and subsequently transferred to Apterygothrips by De Santis (1980) without major comments apart from the sense cone formula. The type series of this species was examined at MLP and the holotype and many paratypes are fully winged. Moreover, the presence of one sense cone on antennal segment III is also exhibited by the New World Karnyothrips caxamarca Hood and K. longiceps Hood. Karnyothrips grassoi , however, is unusual in bearing only two sense cones on antennal segment IV. In addition, Karnyothrips longiceps (Hood) which was described from the USA is here recorded from Brazil for the first time, living on dead twigs in Itaituba, Pará state, Northern Brazil. A key to the Central and South American Karnyothrips species is provided by Mound and Marullo (1996).