Klambothrips walsinghami (Girault) Girault, 2007

Mound, Laurence A. & Morris, David C., 2007, A new thrips pest of Myoporum cultivars in California, in a new genus of leaf-galling Australian Phlaeothripidae (Thysanoptera), Zootaxa 1495, pp. 35-45 : 41-42

Klambothrips walsinghami (Girault) comb. n.

Liothrips walsinghami Girault, 1928: 2

Teuchothrips walsinghami (Girault) ; Mound, 1996a: 330

Girault was responsible for publishing, usually privately, 140 species-group names of thrips, but his species cannot be recognized from the descriptions, many are based on single, often damaged, specimens, and 72 are now placed as synonyms ( Mound, 1996a). Liothrips walsinghami was based on one small damaged female, collected at Beaudesert, near Brisbane in south eastern Queensland. This specimen is particularly small and this, together with its damaged condition, makes it difficult to evaluate. A second specimen of the same species is one of the three syntypes of Cryptothrips nigronympha Girault , and these syntypes are reported as having been collected at Wallumbilla, near Roma, Queensland. Both of these localities are far beyond the northern distribution limits of Myoporum insulare , and no other specimens of the thrips have been seen from north of Mallacoota on the border between Victoria and New South Wales. These two specimens slide mounted by Girault cannot be distinguished from individuals of the common Myoporum insulare thrips of southern Australia; in particular, they have the maxillary stylets deeply retracted ( Fig. 4 ). There is thus at present no alternative but to apply the Girault name to the common species, although the two Queensland specimens are presumably associated with some other species of Myoporum . In addition to these two Girault specimens, more than 60 slide-mounted specimens of both sexes have been studied from the following Australian localities: South Australia, Adelaide (Semaphore and Wittunga); Aldinga; Victor Harbour; Kangaroo Island; Mt Gambier; Loxton; Victoria, Mallacoota.

As indicated above, the body size of this species is highly variable, with consequent variation in other character states. The body lengths of the largest and smallest male from a single gall at Semaphore, Adelaide, are 2450 microns and 1560 microns. Measurements in microns of the holotype female are as follows: Body length 1650. Head length 200. Pronotal major setae, aa 50; epim 65; pa 50. Tube length 150. Antennal segment III length 43.

Figures

FIGURES 2 – 4. Klambothrips species. 2, K. myopori male holotype; 3, K. myopori antenna; 4, K. walsinghami.