Female macropterous; body color dark brown, darker on head and distal abdominal segments, with an almost black tube; legs brown, fore tarsi and apex of femora yellow; antennomeres I–II yellowish, III dark brown with extreme base yellowish, IV–VIII dark brown; wings shaded with brown, darker basally, with a dark median line. Antennae 8-segmented, but VII and VIII partially joined into a single unit; antennomere III with 2 sense cones. Head longer than wide, lateral margins straight and parallel to each other; eyes small but well developed, pair of postocular setae well developed, other head setae minute; maxillary stylets long and close together medially. Pronotum with 5 pairs of well-developed setae, epimeral and posteroangular pairs the longest. Metathoracic sternopleural sutures present. Abdominal tergites II–VII with 1 pair of wing-retaining setae. Tube cone-shaped, strongly tapering to the apex, about 1.5x as long as basal width, lateral margins serrated with a few minute setae. Fore legs slightly thicker than the others, fore tarsi with a large tooth. Fore wings without duplicated cilia.
Male not studied.
Intraspecific variation
Unknown.
Genus and similar species information
Pygothrips is a genus with almost 20 species distributed in the tropics. Species of this genus have the abdominal sternites longer than the tergites and a stout cone-shaped tube, similar to Acallurothrips and Phacothrips. These characteristics seem to be associated to the defensive behavior of raising the abdomen over the body, common in these three genera; but Pygothrips is not closely related to the other two groups, being distinguished by the close together maxillary stylets within the head. Pygothrips longiceps is distinguished from P. callipygus for having an almost black tube; and from P. magnicada by the longer tube, about 1.5x as long as basal width, and antennomere III almost fully dark brown. A key to the Neotropical species of Pygothrips is available in Mound & Marullo (1996).
Distribution around the world
Described from Brazil and recorded in Argentina and Mexico.
