Female macropterous; body color mainly brown, darker on head and tube, lighter on basal abdominal segments; antennomere I dark brown, II brown with yellow apex, III yellow with apical third light brown, IV brown with yellowish base, V–VIII dark brown; forewings hyaline, shaded basally. Antennae 8-segmented, antennomere III with 2 and IV with 4 sense cones. Head longer than wide, slightly constricted basally; dorsal surface with weak likes of sculpture laterally, postocellar and postocular setae very long, remaining head setae short; maxillary stylets V-shaped, about half of head width apart, extending almost to base of postocular setae. Pronotum with 4 pairs of well-developed setae, anteromarginal pair very short, epimeral and posteroangular pairs longer than the others; prosternal basantra present. Metanotum fracamente esculturado medialmente, com um par de cerdas medianas curtas. Metathoracic sternopleural sutures present. Pelta broad, with basal wings, reticulated; abdominal tergites II–VII with 1 pair of sigmoid wing-retaining setae. Tube almost cylinder-shaped, constrict apically, about 2.8x as long as basal width, with few minute setae laterally. Fore legs slightly enlarged, fore tarsi with a tooth. Fore wings with about 20 duplicated cilia.
Male macropterous. Similar to female but smaller. Pore plates absent.
Intraspecific variation
Unknown.
Genus and similar species information
Neosmerinthothrips is a genus with 24 species, occurring in the tropics and Australia. The species have well developed metathoracic sternopleural sutures, and a robust tube with convex margins, comparable to those seen in Acallurothrips and Pygothrips species. Neosmerinthothrips is differentiated from Acallurothrips for having antennomeres VII and VIII clearly distinct from each other and the tube not as strongly swollen, and from Pygothrips for having the maxillary stylets far apart and V-shaped. Neosmerinthothrips hamiltoni is unique among the Brazilian species of the genus in having the postocellar setae elongate, extending almost to the apex of antennomere II. A key to some species of Neosmerinthothrips, including most of the ones recorded in Brazil, is available in Mound (1974).
