Melanthripidae

Melanthripidae

Originally placed as a subfamily of Aeolothripidae, this group is now distinguished because of the presence in adult females of a pair of lobes on the posterior margin of the seventh sternite, each of these lobes bearing two setae (Mound et al., 2012). In contrast to Aeolothripidae, the species are all phytophagous, breeding in flowers.

Species in the four extant genera of this family exhibit striking disjunct distributions. Cranothrips is known mainly from Australia with one species from South Africa (Pereyra & Mound, 2009); Dorythrips is known from Australia and western South America; Ankothrips is from western USA, Europe and South Africa; Melanthrips is mainly from Europe with a few species in Africa, India and north America.

Click to see a list of the 4 extant genera.

Click to see a list of the 4 fossil genera.

Click to see a list of the 70 extant species.

Click to see a list of the 10 fossil species.

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References

Mound LA, Tree DJ & Paris D (2012) [1]

Pereyra V & Mound LA (2009) Phylogenetic relationships within the genus Cranothrips (Thysanoptera, Melanthripidae) with consideration of host associations and disjunct distributions within the family. Systematic Entomology 34: 151–161.

Genera included

Ankothrips Crawford, 1909

† Archankothrips Priesner, 1924

Cranothrips Bagnall, 1915

Dorythrips Hood, 1931

† Eocranothrips Bagnall, 1927

† Gymnopollisthrips Peñalver, Nel & Nel, 1927

Melanthrips Haliday, 1836

† Proboscisthrips Ulitzka, 2017