New records of thrips (Thysanoptera) species in Brazil

Abstract

This study reports four thrips species from Brazil for the first time: the terebrantians Aptinothrips rufus (Haliday) and Echinothrips caribbeanus Hood; and the tubuliferans Androthrips ramachandrai Karny and Gynaikothrips uzeli (Zimmermann). New data about biological aspects of some of these new records are presented.

Natural history of G ynaikothrips uzeli (Thysanoptera, Phlaeothripidae) in galls of Ficus benjamina (Rosales, Moraceae)

“…This species was firstly described in India, and it was already reported in Trinidad and Tobago, Belize, Puerto Rico, United States (Boyd Jr. & Held, 2006), Mexico (CamberoCampos et al, 2010), Colombia (Sepúlveda Cano et al, 2009), Argentina (Borbón & Agostini, 2011) and Brazil (Cavalleri et al, 2011) as a predator of various galling thrips, among them Gynaikothrips uzeli (Boyd Jr. & Held, 2006). Immature and adult stages of A. ramachandrai were observed in laboratory feeding on immature stages of G. uzeli and G. ficorum (Cavalleri et al, 2011). This observation was confirmed by Sepúlveda Cano et al (2009), who observed that whenever A. ramachandrai populations increased, G. uzeli populations decreased.…”

Predation ofGynaikothrips uzeli(Thysanoptera: Phlaeothripidae) ByAndrothrips ramachandrai(Thysanoptera: Phlaeothripidae)

“…Androthrips ramachandrai has been spreading rapidly throughout the Americas, although its abundance seems to be highly variable geographically and even within plant individuals (see Boyd & Held 2006;Cambero-Campos et al 2010;de Borbón & Agostini 2011;Cavalleri et al 2011). Considering previous studies on other predatory Androthrips, the biology of A. ramachandrai might be closely related to that of its prey.…”

“…Androthrips genus includes 12 species (Mound 2013) and they are known to be predators on other gallinducing thrips species in Asia (Varadarasan & Ananthakrishnan 1981;Sureshkumar & Ananthakrishnan 1987). Some recent surveys have recorded Androthrips ramachandrai Karny (Phlaeothripidae) breeding inside F. benjamina galls inhabited by G. uzeli in the Americas, from USA to Southern Brazil (Boyd & Held 2006;CabreraAsencio et al 2008;Sepúlveda et al 2009;Cambero-Campos et al 2010;de Borbón & Agostini 2011;Cavalleri et al 2011). Androthrips ramachandrai was described from India and found in association with galls of Austrothrips cochinchinensis (Phlaeothripidae) on Calycopteris floribunda (Combretaceae) (Anantakrishnan 1978).…”

Population structure and genetic diversity in Gynaikothrips uzeli (Thysanoptera: Phlaeothripidae): is there a correlation between genetic and geographic proximity?

“…In the specific case of G. uzeli, although it was first recorded in Brazil in 2011 (Cavalleri et al, 2011), its host plant was introduced in the 1970s (Santos and Ramalho, 1997). However, a number of introductions occurred later, which may have fostered genetic drift, thus, decreasing the gene pool of the population (Frankham et al, 2008).…”