Teuchothrips simplicipennis Hood, 1919

Mound, Laurence A., Dang, Lihong & Tree, Desley J., 2023, Structural diversity among the leaf-feeding thrips of Australia in the genus Teuchothrips (Thysanoptera, Phlaeothripinae) with 20 new species, Zootaxa 5383 (4), pp. 441-475 : 471-472

Teuchothrips simplicipennis Hood

( Figs 96–101 )

Teuchothrips simplicipennis Hood, 1919: 86 .

Mesothrips insolens Bagnall, 1924: 638 .

Described originally as the type-species of Teuchothrips , a genus for which Hood described two further new species as well as adding a further six species he had previously described from Australia. He described simplicipennis from two females taken at Brooklyn [just north of Sydney], New South Wales, in November, 1914. These specimens were restudied in 1998 and compared with syntypes of insolens that Bagnall had described from Victoria ( Mound 2008), as well as with the macropterae and micropterae listed below from Aldinga, South Australia. Larger males have a distinct tubercle on the inner apex of the fore tibiae that is not present in the smaller males, and sternite VIII has a broad, transverse pore plate ( Fig. 100 ). In both sexes, the basal half of the fore wing is light brown, and the sub-basal setae are rather short and arise in a straight line.

Specimens studied. Australia, Victoria, Healesville , Syntypes of insolens , 4 females, 1 male from Leptospermum myrsinoides , 1917, in ANIC . Victoria, Nelson , 3 females, 3 males from Melaleuca leaves, 5.x.2013; Bendigo, 1 female from Cassinia arcuata , i.2014 . South Australia, Aldinga, Kursa Road, 3 females from Leptospermum myrsinoides , 3.xii.1967; Renmark 14km north, 2 females, 1 male from Melaleuca lanceolata , 30.x.1967; Coonalpyn, 2 females, 1 male from Melaleuca lanceolata , 3.xi.1967; Adelaide, Crafers, 2 females, 3 males from Kunzea ericoides , iv.2005 . Australian Capital Territory, Mulligans Flat , 2 females, 1 male from dead branch, 6.xiii.2003, in ANIC .

Figures

FIGURES 96–106. Teuchothrips of Australia. T. simplicipennis 96–101: (96) head & pronotum; (97) antenna; (98) metanotum & pelta; (99) prosternites; (100) male sternite VIII; (101) tergites IX–X. (102) T. sodalis metanotum. T. soror 103–106: (103) head; (104) antenna; (105) metanotum & pelta; (106) prosternites.