Female macropterous; body color mainly brown; legs pale; antennomeres III–V yellow, VI yellow basally and brown apically. Antennae 8-segmented, antennomere III with 2 and IV with 2 sense cones, III shorter than IV; antennomeres I–IV with two stout and capitate dorsal 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 neat it; maxillary stylets wide apart. Prosternal basantra absent. Metanotum with a pair of short median setae. Metathoracic sternopleural sutures absent. Pelta reticulated and divided: median plate hat-shaped, with thin basal wings, and two small lateral plates, with a long capitate setae on each. Abdominal tergite II with 1 pair of well-developed lateral setae, III with 2 pairs; II–VII with 1 pair of wing-retaining setae. Tube almost cylinder-shaped, about 6.8x 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
Unknown.
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 gracilis is the only species in the genus with the median pair of setae on metanotum short and not capitate, and one of the few species with two capitate setae on antennomere II. A key to Zeugmatothrips species is available in Mound & Palmer (1986).
Distribution around the world
Described from Brazil. Recorded from Costa Rica and Trinidad and Tobago.
