Original reference: Pereyra V & Cavalleri A (2012) The genus Heterothrips (Thysanoptera) in Brazil, with an identification key and seven new species. Zootaxa 3237: 1–23.
Body brown; fore and mid femora largely brown, washed with yellow at tips; hind femur uniformly brown; tibiae yellow but with a small shaded area medially on mid and hind tibiae; tarsi pale; antennal segment I–II & VI–IX uniformly brown, III pale, IV uniformly shaded brown, V brown at apical fourth; fore wings largely brown but pale sub-basally. Head wider than long, with no long setae; ocellar region with three pairs of setae. Antennae 9-segmented, segments III & IV each with one transverse row of sensorial pores at apex. Pronotum with few and widely separated lines of sculpture; mesonotum reticulate striate; metanotum with concentric sculpture lines medially, covered with microtrichia and not forming a triangle. Fore wing with two rows of conspicuous brown setae. Abdominal tergites I–VIII with several lateral rows of microtrichia; without craspeda but bearing an independent fringe of fine small posteromarginal microtrichia, interrupted medially on II–V. Sternites II–VI posterior margins with well developed and entire craspeda bearing microtrichia; sternal discal setae present.
Male similar in colour but smaller; intermediate abdominal sternites without discal setae; sternal pore plates absent.
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. H. sanctaecatharinae is similar to H. striatus and H. brasiliensis in having bicoloured fore wings, discal setae on abdominal sternites, and no sternal pore plates in males. However, H. sanctaecatharinae has an unusually short antennal segment IV (less than 1.5 times as long as wide) and pronotum bears reticulate sculpture, rather than striate. A key to Heterothrips species recorded from Brazil is given by Pereyra & Cavalleri (2012).
