Stephanothrips ferrari Mound

Mound, Laurence A. & Tree, Desley J., 2018, Fungus-feeding thrips of the genus Stephanothrips in Australia (Thysanoptera, Phlaeothripinae), Zootaxa 4442 (1), pp. 181-186 : 183

Stephanothrips ferrari Mound

( Figs 4 , 13 )

Described originally from six females and four males taken near Townsville in northern Queensland ( Mound 1972: 100), this species was collected in 1995 further north at Cape Tribulation and in 2009 on the Torres Strait Islands (Horn, Badu and Gabba Islands ). The collection records indicate that the species lives amongst tussocks of grass, not on dead branches. It is one of the species in this genus in which tergites I and II are fully fused together, as in occidentalis , but tergite I is distinct from the posterior margin of the metanotum ( Fig. 13 ). In contrast to other species in this group the head is elongate, prolonged in front of the eyes and with only two pairs of major setae on the anterior margin ( Fig. 4 ). It is another strongly bicoloured species, with the head and pronotum dark brown but the rest of the body, legs and antennae yellow.

Figures

FIGURES 1–10. Stephanothrips from Australia. Head & pronotum 1–5: (1) occidentalis; (2) broomei; (3) howei; (4) ferrari; (5) barretti. Antenna 6–8: (6) barretti; (7) broomei; (8) howei. Prosternites 9–10: (9) barretti; (10) howei.

FIGURES 11–15. Stephanothrips from Australia, metanotum & tergites I–II. (11) barretti; (12) broomei; (13) ferrari; (14) howei; (15) occidentalis.