Pezothrips kellyanus
species of insect
Pezothrips kellyanus, also known as Kelly's citrus thrips, is a species of Thysanoptera (thrips) from the family Thripidae. It is known as a pest species on citrus fruit crops as it can cause scarring damage to fruit skins.
First collection and description
The species was first described in 1916 as Physothrips kellyanus by Richard Siddoway Bagnall based upon examples from Australia collected by Reginald Kelly at Brandon, Queensland in 1914, Brisbane Botanic Gardens (now known as City Botanic Gardens) in 1914 and Ballerat, Victoria in 1915. Type specimen material collected by Kelly from Brandon and Brisbane is held in the collection of the Natural History Museum, London.
Morphology
The adults of both sexes of P. kellyanus are brownish in colour, with the basal area of the forewings being lighter in colour. The female of the species was originally recorded as 1.6-1.8 mm long, and the male about 1.2 mm; a 2016 factsheet from the South Australia Research & Development Institute gives a range of about 1-2mm for adult size. The males have a more slender abdomen than females. The sixth antennal segment of males is noticeably longer than that of females.
Life cycle
Pezothrips kellyanus is attracted to fragrant white or whiteish-yellow flowers on which to lay its eggs. Other than citrus, plant species which have been recorded as hosting breeding populations of P. kellyanus include jasmine Jasminum officinale and Japanese honeysuckle Lonicera japonica.
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This entry incorporates text from “Pezothrips kellyanus” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.