Scolothrips latipennis Priesner 1950 : 54

Mound, Laurence A., 2011, Species recognition in the genus Scolothrips (Thysanoptera, Thripidae), predators of leaf-feeding mites, Zootaxa 2797, pp. 45-53 : 50

Scolothrips latipennis Priesner 1950: 54

The type specimens of this species (in SMF) were collected at Cairo, Egypt feeding on Eotetranychus cucurbitacearum (Tetranychidae) on Citrullus leaves. It was noted at that time that latipennis sometimes co-existed on the same leaf as Scolothrips longicornis , and collections from Egypt in 1987 from soy bean leaves confirmed this association (in BMNH). These two species are readily distinguished from sexmaculatus because the pronotum lacks a pair of posteromesad discal setae ( Fig. 2 ). S. latipennis is another member of the genus that, in fully mature adults, has at least the anterolateral areas of the pterothorax shaded or even dark brown. In fully mature females the abdominal terga are uniformly light brown to brown, although the legs are almost uniformly yellow, and the pronotum is distinctively paler or even yellow. This species is widely reported in countries of the Mediterranean region (zur Strassen, 2003), and is here newly recorded from Australia: two females have been studied taken from Prunus leaves in New South Wales [near Young in 1965 (ANIC), and near Leeton in 2001 (NSWO)].

Figures

FIGURES 1 – 8. Scolothrips species. (1) S. ochoa, pro, meso and metanota. Head and thorax 2 – 3 (arrow indicates position of posteromesad discal setae): (2) S. latipennis; (3) S. sexmaculatus. Antenna 4 – 5: (4) S. ochoa; (5) S. asura. (6) S. brevipilis (in Canada balsam). (7) S. sexmaculatus (in clove oil). (8) S. rhagebianus (in Hoyers mountant).