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 legs pale brown washed with dark brown at base of femora and tibiae; mid and hind femora and tibiae brown with pale apex; tarsi pale; antennal segments I–II & V–IX brown, III pale brown, IV pale brown at base, brown at apex; fore wing uniformly brown. 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 broadly reticulate with no long setae; mesonotum reticulate; metanotum with concentric lines of sculpture, not forming a triangle and covered with microtrichia. Fore wing with two rows of minute brown setae. Abdominal tergites I–VIII laterally with several rows of microtrichia and with an entire craspedum bearing a fringe of small microtrichia on posterolateral margins; craspeda absent medially but with a fringe of microtrichia posteromedially. Sternites II–VI with no discal setae; posterior margins with well-developed entire craspedum bearing microtrichia.
Male unknown.
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. savanicus seems to be related to H. australis, because the shape of the antennal segments and the sensorial pore bands are quite similar in these two species. However, H. australis is distinctive in having continuous craspedal lobes on the posterior margin of the abdominal tergites. A key to Heterothrips species recorded from Brazil is given by Pereyra & Cavalleri (2012).
