Zeugmatothrips peltatus Hood, 1949: 85.

Original reference: Hood JD (1949) Brasilian Thysanoptera I. Revista de Entomologia 20: 3–88.

Family

Phlaeothripidae, Idolothripinae

Nomenclatural information 

https://thrips.info/wiki/Zeugmatothrips_peltatus 

Diagnosis

Female macropterous; body color mainly dark brown, head slightly lighter and abdomen almost black; legs yellow with tarsi slightly paler; antennomeres I–II and VII–VIII dark brown, III–V yellow, VI yellow basally and shaded with brown apically; wings yellowish, shaded basally and apically, with a brown median line. 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 with one, II–IV with two setae each. Head longer than wide, dorsal sculpture reticulated; 2 pairs of stout and capitate dorsal setae, median pair about 0.75x as long as the postocular pair and located almost in line with it; maxillary stylets wide apart. Pronotum with 5 pairs of long, stout and capitate setae, anteroangular and epimeral pairs the longest; prosternal basantra absent. Metanotum reticulate, with a pair of long and stout median setae. Metathoracic sternopleural sutures absent. Pelta wide and shaped like a half circle, reticulate, with two smaller lateral plates bearing a long and capitate setae each; abdominal tergite II with 2 pairs of well-developed lateral setae, III with 3 pairs; II–VII with 1 pair of wing-retaining setae. Tube almost cylinder-shaped, constricted apically, about 5.1x as long as basal width, with several lateral setae. All legs similar in appearance, with many setae, some of which are stout and capitate; 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 peltatus is unique among the Brazilian species of the genus, for having a divided pelta whose median plate is a semi-circle, without basal wings; and the pair of median dorsal setae on head is relatively long and almost in line with the postocular setae. 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/47932 

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 (1949) Brasilian Thysanoptera I. Revista de Entomologia 20: 3–88.
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.