Fungus-feeding thrips of the genus Stephanothrips in Australia (Thysanoptera, Phlaeothripinae)
Author
Mound, Laurence A.
Author
Tree, Desley J.
text
Zootaxa
2018
2018-06-29
4442
1
181
186
journal article
29805
10.11646/zootaxa.4442.1.11
da0ef803-9cde-45c3-8bab-c2a3da016983
1175-5326
1301436
060CE2B2-9A55-46BF-AD37-B7BA28D9F698
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.