Saltatorial leaf‐feeding Thysanoptera (Thripidae: Dendrothripinae) from Australia and New Caledonia, with newly recorded pests of ferns, figs and mulberries

Abstract

Thrips of the subfamily Dendrothripinae that have been observed alive are all remarkably saltatorial. Each of them has an elongate and characteristically lyre‐shaped metathoracic endofurca, to which are attached the powerful muscles used by these minute leaf‐feeding thrips when jumping. Out of a world fauna in this subfamily of 10 genera and 86 species, six genera and 11 species are here recorded from Australia with a further new genus and species from New Caledonia. Leucothrips nigripennis Reuter, a pest of cultivated ferns previously known only from the northern hemisphere including southern India, is newly recorded from Australia and Brazil, and the suggestion made that the species is Neotropical in origin; the male is described for the first time as having simple antennal sense cones in contrast to the forked sense cones of females. Three species of Pseudodendrothrips are recorded from Australia: P. gillespiei sp. n. is described from Lord Howe Island; P. darci (Girault) is redescribed, and recorded as damaging young leaves of Ficus species in northern Australia; P. mori (Niwa), a widespread pest of Morus, is recorded from Australia for the first time. The possibility is discussed that P. mori, P. darci, and the south‐east Asian Morus pest P. bhattii Kudô represent a single species. The genus Dendrothrips is recorded from Australia for the first time with the description of three species: D. glynn sp. n. from northern Queensland is related to D. reticulatus Bournier from New Caledonia; D. diaspora sp. n. from Queensland, New South Wales and Western Australia is related to D. howei sp. n. from Lord Howe Island. The genus Edissa, previously based on one species from Africa, is recorded from Australia, with E. steinerae sp. n. described from Queensland; this species is also recorded from Japan and Thailand. Asprothrips seminigricornis (Girault) is redescribed from several sites in eastern Australia. Ensiferothrips secundus sp. n. is described from Lord Howe Island, the genus being known previously from a single species in New Caledonia and New South Wales. Filicopsothrips wellsae gen. et sp. n., with forewings intermediate in structure between those of Dendrothrips species and typical thripids, is described from tree ferns in New Caledonia.