Azaleothrips laevigatus Okajima

Okajima, Shûji & Masumoto, Masami, 2014, Species-richness in the Oriental fungus-feeding thrips of the genus Azaleothrips (Thysanoptera, Phlaeothripidae), Zootaxa 3846 (3), pp. 301-347 : 323-325

Azaleothrips laevigatus Okajima

( Figs 58–63 )

Azaleothrips laevigatus Okajima, 2006: 192 .

Diagnosis. Body brown; antennal segment III yellowish brown, with basal 1/3 yellow. Head ( Fig. 58 ) about 1.2 times as long as wide; dorsal surface not heavy, sculpture comparatively weak; postocular setae usually longer than two-thirds the length of compound eye; mouth cone long ( Fig. 60 ), usually reaching mesopresternum; antennal segment VIII distinct from segment VII; segments III and IV with three (1 + 2) and four sensoria, respectively. Pronotum ( Fig. 59 ) weakly sculptured marginally, not tuberculate; basanntra absent; fore tarsus with a tooth in both sexes, but minute in female ( Fig. 61 ); mesonotum with dentate michrotrichia along transverse reticles; metanotum longitudinally reticulate or striate; anterior half with usually with 4 short setae. S1 setae on abdominal tergite IX much longer than half the length of tube; S2 setae on tergite IX long and pointed at apex in female; tube about twothirds the length of head; anal setae longer than tube.

This species was described from one female and four males collected in the Ryukyu Islands, southern Japan, and now many females and males are newly recorded from somewhat wider range of tropical and subtropical SE Asia described as below. It is easily distinguished from congeners by the not heavily sculptured head. This character state is shared with dentatus , newly described above from Sulawesi, Indonesia, but that species has the fore tibial apical tooth or tubercle, expanded S2 setae on the abdominal tergite IX in the female, and not dentate reticulation on the mesonotum. In the original description, Okajima referred “absence of prothoracic ferna” in the Remarks ( Okajima, 2006: 193), but this is an error, and should state correctly as “absence of prothoracic basantra”. This species may be an aberrant member of the amabilis group.

Additional records (detailed data are omitted). Borneo, Sabah, 5 females and 2 males; Indonesia, Bali Is., 30 females and 26 males; Flores Is., 4 males; Philippines, Mindanao Is., 1 male; Taiwan, Kaohsiung Hsien, 6 females and 1 male, Taitung Hsien, 2 females and 2 males; Thailand, Phuket Is., 15 females and 18 males, nr. Chiang Mai, 16 females and 7 males; West Malayasia, Tapah, 4 females.

Figures

FIGURES 58 – 63. Azaleothrips laevigatus. (58) head, female; (59) pronotum, female; (60) mouth cone; female; (61) right fore leg, female; (62) tergite II, female; (63) sternite VIII, male.