This family is restricted to the New World and includes 4 extant genera and approximately 90 species. All of these genera are represented in Brazil and about 35% of these species were originally described from this country. With the exception of species in the genus Aulacothrips that are ectoparasitic on Hemiptera, all members of Heterothripidae feed exclusively on flowers.

 

Heterothrips is the largest genus, and is widely distributed between north-eastern U.S.A. and southern Argentina. However, many of the 76 included species were based on few specimens with little biological information. The genus Lenkothrips includes five species and is restricted to South America. Species in these two genera probably have a high degree of host specificity, and many plant families such as Fabaceae, Myrtaceae, Malpighiaceae and Solanaceae seem to support a high diversity of species in Brazil. The South American genus Scutothrips is represented in Brazil only by Scutothrips nudus, and this has been studied from flowers of many plant species of Malpighiaceae. Aulacothrips currently comprises five species, four described from Brazil and one from Colombia. This group is the only known thrips to exhibit an ectoparasitic life style, feeding on gregarious ant-tended hemipterans.

 

Adults of all Heterothripidae have 9-segmented antenna, and the sensoria on III & IV segments are continuous around each segment, but in Heterothrips and Scutothrips the sensoria constitute a simple band, whereas in Aulacothrips and Lenkothrips the band is convoluted. The generic relationships among the family still unknown, but Scutothrips and Lenkothrips possibly do not constitute natural groups, and Aulacothrips is likely to be the sister group of the rest of the Heterothripidae.

 

Click here to see the species recorded from Brazil.

Click here to identify the main species recorded from Brazil.

 

References suggested:

Bailey SF & Cott HE (1954) A review of the genus Heterothrips Hood (Thysanoptera: Heterothripidae) in North America, with descriptions of two new species. Annals of the entomological Society of America 47: 614-635.

Cavalleri A, Kaminski LA & Mendonça Jr. MS (2010) Ectoparasitism in Aulacothrips (Thysanoptera: Heterothripidae) revisited: host diversity on honeydew-producing Hemiptera and description of a new species. Zoologischer Anzeiger 249: 209–221.

Cavalleri A, Kaminski LA & Mendonça MS (2012) A new ectoparasitic Aulacothrips from Amazon rainforest and the significance of variation in antennal sensoria (Thysanoptera: Heterothripidae). Zootaxa 3438: 62–68.

Cavalleri A & Kaminski LA (2014) Two new ectoparasitic species of Aulacothrips Hood, 1952 (Thysanoptera: Heterothripidae) associated with ant-tended treehoppers (Hemiptera). Systematic Parasitology 89(3): 271–278.

Cavalleri A & Mound LA (2014) The neotropical flower-living genus Lenkothrips (Thysanoptera, Heterothripidae): three new species and an identification key. Zootaxa 3814: 581–590.

De Borbón CM (2010) The Heterothrips species of Argentina, with two new species and biological notes (Thysanoptera, Heterothripidae). Zootaxa 2562: 45–56.

Mound LA & Marullo R (1996) The Thrips of Central and South America: An Introduction. Memoirs on Entomology, International 6: 1–488.

Pereyra V & Cavalleri A (2012) The genus Heterothrips (Thysanoptera) in Brazil, with an identification key and seven new species. Zootaxa 3237: 1–23.

Published in: 27/01/2018
Posted by: Adriano

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