Merothripidae

Apterous female of Merothrips brunneus, from CSIRO.

Belongs within: Thysanoptera.

The Merothripidae are a family of minute, pale thrips that are found in leaf litter or on dead twigs, apparently feeding on fungal hyphae (Mound & Marullo 1996).

Characters (from Mound & Marullo 1996): Antennae with eight or nine clearly separate segments, moniliform with long lateral setae, segments III and IV each with single greatly inflated sensorium or with a transverse sensory area around apex; tergite X usually with well-developed trichobothria.

<==Merothripidae
    |--Jezzinothrips [Jezzinothripidae] Z02
    |--Erotidothrips MM96
    |--Damerothrips Hood 1954 MM96
    |    `--*D. gemmatus MM96
    `--Merothrips Hood 1912 [incl. Amerothrips Bhatti 1989, Sakimurathrips Bhatti 1989, Tardothrips Bhatti 1989] MM96
         |--*M. morgani Hood 1912 MM96
         |--M. brevisetis Hood 1954 MM96
         |--M. brunneus Ward 1969 MM96
         |--M. floridensis Watson 1927 MM96
         |--M. fusciceps Hood & Williams 1915 [=*Amerothrips fusciceps; incl. M. cognatus Hood 1925] MM96
         |--M. laevis Hood 1938 MM96
         |--M. mirus Crawford 1942 [=*Tardothrips mirus] MM96
         |--M. nigricornis Hood 1937 MM96
         |--M. productus Hood 1938 MM96
         |--M. tympanis Hood 1954 MM96
         `--M. williamsi Priesner 1921 MM96

*Type species of generic name indicated

REFERENCES

[MM96] Mound, L. A., & R. Marullo. 1996. The thrips of Central and South America: an introduction (Insecta: Thysanoptera). Memoirs on Entomology, International 6: 1-487.

[Z02] Zherikhin, V. V. 2002. Order Thripida Fallen, 1914. (=Thysanoptera Haliday, 1836) The thrips. In History of Insects (A. P. Rasnitsyn & D. L. J. Quicke, eds) pp. 133-143. Kluwer Academic Publishers: Dordrecht.