First record of two tubuliferan and four terebrantian species of Thysanoptera ( Insecta ) from northeastern India

Journal of Threatened Taxa | www.threatenedtaxa.org | November 2012 | 4(14): 3369–3372 3369 The order Thysanoptera popularly known as thrips or fringe wings are known to be of considerable significance as they feed on food and horticultural plants and also due to their ability to act as vectors of some bacterial, fungal and viral diseases of plants (David & Ananthakrishnan 2004). In spite of extensive taxonomic contributions mainly by Ananthakrishnan & Sen (1980) and Bhatti (1994), there is a paucity of information on thrips of northeastern India. All specimens were collected during the present study from Manipur and Nagaland. Prior to this, their occurrences were known only from a few Southeast Asian countries. Specimens collected in the present study are deposited in the insect museum of the Department of Life Sciences, Manipur University. The present new records will hopefully motivate future workers to engage in indepth survey and taxonomic explorations of thrips in the north-east, a biodiversity hotspot.

The order Thysanoptera popularly known as thrips or fringe wings are known to be of considerable significance as they feed on food and horticultural plants and also due to their ability to act as vectors of some bacterial, fungal and viral diseases of plants (David & Ananthakrishnan 2004).In spite of extensive taxonomic contributions mainly by Ananthakrishnan & Sen (1980) and Bhatti (1994), there is a paucity of information on thrips of northeastern India.All specimens were collected during the present study from Manipur and Nagaland.Prior to this, their occurrences were known only from a few Southeast Asian countries.Specimens collected in the present study are deposited in the insect museum of the Department of Life Sciences, Manipur University.
The present new records will hopefully motivate future workers to engage in indepth survey and taxonomic explorations of thrips in the north-east, a biodiversity hotspot.
Comments: As early as 1963, Bournier described the macropterous form of Baenothrips asper (= Transithrips asper) from Angola, Africa.Subsequently, occurrence of B. asper was reported from India (Ananthakrishnan 1966) and Taiwan (Kudo 1978) based on the apterous individuals.However, Bhatti (2002) on examining the Indian materials felt that there could be two different species of Baenothrips including that of apterous B. asper, but the identity of the latter did not match with the winged form of Angolan species.Recently, during the survey in Nagaland, a dozen individuals of the macropterous form of B. asper were collected from mixed leaf litter.The characters of these specimens were found identical with that of Angolan materials of B. asper, that being recharacterized by Bhatti (2002) based on its paratypes.Further, a comparative account of certain morphometric data (Table 1) of the materials collected during the present study also showed similarity with that of Angolan specimens as provided by Bhatti (2002).Such comparisons on morphometric measurements urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:B8555A58-0C76-46F0-9EA2-D7906177E907and features of the winged form have clearly indicated that the specimens collected from Nagaland are B. asper.Thus, it becomes evident that the macropterous form of B. asper occurs in India besides the African continent and the present observation is the first of its kind to report its occurrence in the Indo-Myanmar Biodiversity Hotspot region of northeastern India.(Hood, 1919) Zygothrips pallescens Hood, 1919: Proc. Biol. Soc. Washington. 32: 75-92.Dyothrips pallescens (Hood, 1919): Mound & Minaei, (2007).J. Nat. Hist., 41: 2919-78.Morphological features: Antennae 8 segmented; III with one sense cone; IV with 4 sense cones; Head longer than wide; body bicolourous; metathorax and abdominal segment I-yellow; rest brown.Prothoracic notopleural sutures incomplete.Fore wings without double fringes; all tarsi yellow, fore tarsi tooth absent.Post ocular and pronotal setae, and tergite IX setae S1 & S2 expanded (Image 2).
Macropterous (male): Head ,thorax and abdominal segments V-VII brown, II-IV and VIII-X pale yellow.Forewing with a complete band with paler sub apex.All femora and tibiae brown, tarsi yellow.
Distribution: India (Nagaland-new record); earlier known only from Nepal.
Distribution: Austria, Czechoslovakia, Germany, Italy.Morphological features: Body dark brown.Head little longer than wide, cheeks weakly serrated with 2-3 setae, vertex with two pairs of anteocellar setae, interocellar setae placed just behind ocellar triangle in line with posterior margin of hind ocelli.Antennal segments 3-4 with forked sense cones, 1, 2 brown, 3-5 yellow, 6 yellow at base, rest brown.Pronotum shorter than head, nearly rounded with exceptionally developed postangular setae, anteromarginal longer than anteroangular.Forewing brown with strongly developed setae, subbasal pale.All femora, mid and hind tibiae brown, all tarsi yellow.Comb on abdominal tergite VIII minute but complete; segments III-VII of males with transverse glandular areas, setae on IX exceptionally strong (Image 6).