Body yellow, including legs; antennal segments I–IV yellow, V brown in apical 2/3, VI–VIII brown; body setae unusually slender. Head lacking ocelli, weakly prolonged in front of eyes; three pairs of ocellar setae present, pair III long. Antennae 8-segmented, III & IV with forked sense cones; III with simple pedicel. Pronotum not sculptured, with two pairs of long posteroangular setae; anteroangular and anteromarginal setae long, but less than 0.5 pronotum length; often with two pairs of minor anteromarginal setae instead of one pair. Mesothoracic spinula long, metathoracic spinula absent. Metanotum transverse and transversely sculptured; campaniform sensilla absent; two pairs of setae, median pair arising behind anterior margin. Tarsi 2-segmented. Abdominal tergites II–VIII with four pairs of long discal setae medially; V–VII lack lateral ctenidia, ctenidia on VIII anterolateral to spiracle; posteromarginal comb of microtrichia on VIII very short and irregular, sometimes scarcely visible. Sternites without discal setae, with three pairs of long posteromarginal setae. Both sexes apterous or micropterous.
Male not examined.
Intraspecific variation
Specimens studied from Trinidad are micropterous with very short wing lobes (Mound & Marullo, 1996), but specimens collected in South Brazil are apterous.
Genus and similar species information
Frankliniella is one of the largest genera amongst Thysanoptera, comprising more than 160 described species. About 90% of the species are from the Neotropics and their taxonomy is usually complex. Almost all members have 8-segmented antennae, three pairs of ocellar setae and fore wing with both rows of setae complete. About 40 species are recorded from Brazil, and almost half of these were described from this country. Frankliniella trinidadensis is an apterous species which lacks ocelli and might be related to other South American grass living thrips such as F. bondari and F. frumenti. A key to Frankliniella species recorded from Brazil is provided by Cavalleri & Mound (2012).
World distribution
Described from Trinidad, it is also known from Brazil.
