Zeugmatothrips cinctus Hood, 1952: 170.

Original reference: Hood JD (1952) Brasilian Thysanoptera III. Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington 65: 141–174.

Family

Phlaeothripidae, Idolothripinae

Nomenclatural information 

https://thrips.info/wiki/Zeugmatothrips_cinctus 

Diagnosis

Female macropterous; body color mainly dark brown, including legs, with abdominal segments I and II lighter; antennomere III yellow but shaded basally, IV–VII yellow. Antennae 8-segmented, antennomere III with 2 and IV with 2 sense cones, III shorter than IV; basal antennomeres with stout and capitate setae dorsally: I, II and V with one, III and IV with two setae each. Head longer than wide, dorsal sculpture reticulated; 2 pairs of stout and capitate dorsal setae, median pair shorter than the postocular pair and located close to it; maxillary stylets V-shaped, more than half of head width apart, extending almost to base of dorsal median setae. Pronotum with 5 pairs of stout and capitate setae arising from tubercles, anteroangular and epimeral pairs the longest; prosternal basantra absent. Metanotum with a pair of long median setae. Metathoracic sternopleural sutures absent. Pelta reticulate and divided: median plate with rounded anterior margin and basal wings, lateral plates small and with a stout capitate seta each. Abdominal tergite II with 1 or 2 pairs of well-developed lateral setae, III with 2 or 3 pairs; tergites II–VII with 1 pair of wing-retaining setae. Tube almost cylinder-shaped, about 5.6x as long as basal width, with several lateral setae. All legs similar in appearance, fore tarsi without a tooth. Fore wings without duplicated cilia.

Male macropterous and similar to female, fore legs without a tarsal tooth. Pore plates absent.

Intraspecific variation

The color of antennal segments VI and VII is variable, from yellow to brownish. The external pair of lateral setae on abdominal tergites II and III may vary in thickness and curvature.

Genus and similar species information

Zeugmatothrips is a genus with almost 20 species, distributed across the tropical forests in the Americas. It has a series of unusual characteristics, which helps differentiate this genus from other Idolothripinae: antennae with stout and capitate dorsal setae on the basal segments, antennomere III shorter than IV; head longer than wide, with the median dorsal setae stout and capitate, frequently as long as the postocular setae; tarsal tooth absent both in males and females; fore wings without duplicated cilia; tube long with several lateral setae. Zeugmatothrips cinctus is the only Brazilian species in the genus with fully dark legs, a divided pelta and abdominal segments I and II paler than the rest of the body, forming a pale “band”. A key to Zeugmatothrips species is available in Mound & Palmer (1986).

Distribution around the world

Described from Brazil.

Distribution in Brazil

http://fauna.jbrj.gov.br/fauna/faunadobrasil/66581 

Life history

Found mainly in tropical forests, where it lives in large dead leaves, feeding on fungal spores.

Economic importance

Not recorded.

References suggested
Hood JD (1952) Brasilian Thysanoptera III. Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington 65: 141–174.
Mound LA & Palmer JM (1983) The generic and tribal classification of spore-feeding Thysanoptera (Phlaeothripidae: Idolothripinae). Bulletin of the British Museum (Natural History). Entomology 46: 1–174. 

Mound LA & Palmer JM (1986) Patterns of speciation in Neotropical spore-feeding thrips of the genus Zeugmatothrips. Amazoniana 9: 581–594.