A Key to SomeFrankliniella(Thysanoptera: Thripidae) Larvae Found in Florida with Descriptions of the First Instar of Select species

Abstract

Few publications exist toward the identification of larval thrips. As a result, researchers and practitioners often are unable to report larval species data or may misinterpret what is a host plant when adults of multiple species are collected. Therefore, we conducted repetitive plant sampling and detailed examination of larvae with adults, which revealed morphological differences of some undescribed Frankliniella (Thysanoptera: Thripidae) larvae. The morphological differences were confirmed by non-destructive DNA extraction, PCR, and sequencing of the COI mitochondrial gene. A larva II morphological key to 7 Frankliniella species found in Florida is presented with new larval descriptions of 4 species.

Identification of second instar larvae of thrips (Thysanoptera: Thripidae) vectors of Orthotospovirus (Tospoviridae) in South America

“…Thus, we focused on species involved in frequent problems with orthotospoviruses, among which the richness of Frankliniella species is much more restricted. Currently, identification of larvae is possible for only a few of the more than 230 Frankliniella species (ThripsWiki 2022), with the New World species discussed in De Borbón (2007) and Skarlinsky and Funderburk (2016), and also some species from Europe in Nakahara and Vierbergen (1999) and Vierbergen et al (2010) also found in the Americas. In contrast, the three other species discussed here, T. tabaci, T. palmi and S. dorsalis, belong to groups that are less species rich in South American crops and have second instar larvae with well-delimited morphological features.…”

“…Larvae II have the pronotum with seven pairs of setae and the mesonotum with eight pairs, whereas larvae I have the pronotum with six pairs of setae and the mesonotum with five pairs (Vierbergen et al . 2010; Skarlinsky & Funderburk 2016).…”

Frontiers Approaches to the Diagnosis of Thrips (Thysanoptera): How Effective Are the Molecular and Electronic Detection Platforms?

“…Conventional insect taxonomy mostly relies on external morphology-based dichotomous keys for species delimitation. Several such resources are available for the identification of thrips specimens [ 18 , 19 , 20 , 21 , 22 , 23 , 24 , 25 , 26 , 27 , 28 ]. However, species identification based on morphological characters is time-consuming as it involves processing of specimens, preparation of microscope slides, and magnification using a microscope, as well as expert morphological knowledge of the genera.…”

Species diversity of thrips (Thysanoptera) in selected avocado orchards from Mexico based on morphology and molecular data

“…Identification of thrips to species level requires great expertise and, in many cases, it is only possible using adults (Brunner et al 2002;Przybylska et al 2015). Despite reports of successful identification of larval stages of thrips (Skarlinsky and Funderburk 2016), the use of larval stages for accurate identification is still not widely taken up (Mound 2013). In addition, intraspecific morphological variation in some thrips species, such as S. persea (Hoddle et al 2008) and F. occidentalis Pergande (Rugman-Jones et al 2010) is large, making identification based solely on morphological characters questionable; accurate identification should, therefore, include the use of molecular techniques (Rugman-Jones et al 2006).…”