It is not rare for students and researchers to get confused when choosing the appropriate terminology to the young Thysanoptera. Although the first and second instars look very similar to the adults, the term nymph, as used for hemimetabolous insects, should be avoided.

Customarily most researchers have called the first two feeding instars are called larvae, and the latter, non-feeding ones pupae. These traditional terms are applied widely, irrespective of the objections expressed by entomologists, including some thysanopterists.

Extensive changes occur during the non-feeding instars, comparable with that exhibited by endopterigote insects, and some muscles, gut, malpighian tubes disappear or are reconstructed. From this point of view, the terms LARVA and PUPA are preferable to NYMPH – a term more appropriate to hemimetabolous insects, in which changes during the resting instars are far less intense than in thrips metamorphosis.