Pseudanaphothrips aureolus (Girault)

Pseudanaphothrips aureolus (Girault) View in CoL

( Figs 21 View FIGURES 18–26 , 28 View FIGURES 27–34 )

Physothrips aureolus Girault, 1928: 3 View in CoL

Isochaetothrips melanurus Steele, 1940: 328 View in CoL . Synonymised by Mound (2002)

The original description of this species suggests that it was based on a single female taken on a Shastra Daisy in Victoria at Box Hill near Melbourne. The synonymic species, melanurus View in CoL , was collected near Melbourne at Kalorama, from Acacia dealbata View in CoL , 13. ix.1933, and based on four female and three male syntypes. The species was first recognised as a member of Pseudanaphothrips View in CoL by Mound and Houston (1987). It is here recognised as sharing, only with P. uniformis View in CoL among species in the genus, an unusually elongate tenth abdominal segment ( Fig. 28 View FIGURES 27–34 ). Apparently associated with the flowers of species in various genera of the Asteraceae ( Mound & Tree 2020) View in CoL , one series of both sexes was taken from Ozothamnus diosmifolius View in CoL at Mt Nebo, Brisbane. In total, about 30 females and 10 males have been studied, taken widely in southeastern Australia between Kangaroo Island and Brisbane.

Females of P. aureolus are distinctive due to their yellow colour and elongate tenth abdominal segment, and the male pore plates are small and circular to slightly oval with a diameter of 10 to 15 microns. The metanotal sculpture lines are closely parallel and converge posteromedially ( Fig. 21 View FIGURES 18–26 ), a condition that is shared with most species in this genus. Both sexes have the microtrichia of the posteromarginal comb on tergite VIII long and regular, as in P. uniformis ( Fig. 28 View FIGURES 27–34 ), the only other species in the genus in which females have tergite X elongate.