Body largely brown; tarsi yellow; antennal segments III & IV extensively yellow;fore wing brown with pale band near the base. Head about as wide as long, with no long setae; ocellar region with three pairs of setae. Antennae 9-segmented, segments III & IV unusually long and each with one transverse row of sensorial pores at apex. Pronotum striate, with no long setae; mesonotum closely striate; metanotum with concentric lines of sculpture and covered with microtrichia. Abdominal tergites I–V with posteromarginal comb of microtrichia laterally, II–V with a few marginal microtrichia medially; VI–VIII with complete marginal comb of long microtrichia; II–VII with regular transverse rows of microtrichia laterally. Sternites with a long microtrichial fringe on posterior margin and with few discal setae on lateral thirds of II–VI.
Male smaller, abdominal sternites without pore plates.
Intraspecific variation
Not recorded.
Genus and similar species information
Heterothrips Hood is the largest genus in the family Heterothripidae, currently comprising more than 70 species. It is restricted to the Americas and two informal groups were proposed by Moulton (1932). Species placed in “group I” bear a posteromarginal fringe of independent microtrichia on the abdominal tergites, whereas species in “group II” have microtrichia that arise on the posterior margin of the tergites from a well-developed craspedum. Antennal segments III & IV each bears apically a circumpolar sensorium with one or more rows of pores. This species is remarkable in having a very long antennal segment III, about 3.5 times as long as wide. A key to Heterothrips species recorded from Brazil is given by Pereyra & Cavalleri (2012).
