PLANT PROTECTION 1 – Pests, Diseases and Weeds

PLANT PROTECTION 1 – Pests, Diseases and Weeds
NO. SPECIES
IN AUSTRALIA
SOME
DISTINCTIVE
FEATURES
LIFE CYCLE
ORDER THYSANOPTERA
Thrips
There are more than 5500 species worldwide, but fewer than 100 species are
important pests of economic plants. More than 75 species are associated with
horticultural and agricultural crops in Australia.
www.ento.csiro.au/education/insects/thysanoptera.html
Lucid Keys www.lucidcentral.com/
Pest Thrips of the World, ThripsID,
AQIS Identification Guide (ThripsID) - Thysanoptera
ADULT Body Most species are tiny, up to 1.5 mm in length, some longer.
Elongated body rather than spherical.
NYMPH
Wings
Mouth
Legs
Two pairs of narrow strap-like, approximately equal
length wings with fringes of hairs around edges which
assist flight, the wing membranes being too small to
sustain flight. Some species are wingless.
Slightly asymmetrical cone with stylets.
Minus claws. It is easy to observe this but you
need a microscope.
Usually paler in colour than the adults, often transparent.
There is a gradual metamorphosis - egg, nymph (several stages) and adult.
The larger nymphal stages may be non-feeding, resting pupa-like stages (prepupal
and pupal). Parthenogenesis is common (fertilization is not necessary),
the female insect produces live young without the necessity of mating).
Plague
thrips
Natural
size about
1 mm long
Some
variations, eg
gladiolus thrips,
greenhouse thrips
METHOD
OF FEEDING
ADULT
NYMPH
All stages feed by rasping plant tissue and sucking sap from
individual cells on the surface of the plant. Many species feed on
fungi, others feed on pollen and a few species prey on small insects
and mites.
130 Insects and allied pests - Thysanoptera (Thrips)