Spore-feeding thrips (Phlaeothripidae) from leaf litter and dead wood in Australia

Abstract

In Australia, spore-feeding Thysanoptera have been found in temperate and subtropical areas mainly in leaf litter, and in wet tropical areas particularly on dead wood. These thrips were collected either through a large Tulgren funnel, or by beating branches over a plastic surface. Seventy-seven species in 26 genera are keyed and figured, and this comprises all the known Australian Idolothripinae as well as three unrelated genera of Phlaeothripinae which probably feed on fungal spores. Most of the species are probably endemic, apart from those which have been introduced by man and a few species which also occur in New Guinea and Indonesia. Individual species cannot be recognized at present in the Carientothrips mjobergi (Karny) complex. Less than one-fifth of the spore-feeding genera are endemic, in contrast to the Phlaeothripinae genera associated with native plants. Two genera and 31 species are described as new; 30 species and seven genera are placed in synonymy. These and other nomenclatural changes are summarized below.