Grass-living genus Limothrips (Thysanoptera: Thripidae) in Iran with a new record and key to Iranian species

ABSTRACT

The genus Limothrips Haliday comprises species that live on various grasses, family Poaceae. Limothrips consimilis Priesner is reported for the first time from Iran on the basis of several females collected on Avena sativa and Bromus sp. (Poaceae). An illustrated key is provided for 6 species of Limothrips recorded so far in Iran (L. angulicornis Jablonowski, L. cerealium Haliday, L. consimilis Priesner, L. denticornis Haliday, L. schmutzi Priesner, and L. transcaucasicus Savenko). The pest status of grass-living thripid species in Iran is compared to that of species from the family Phlaeothrirpidae.

KEYWORDS:

• Limothrips consimilis
• new record
• grass
• Southern Iran

Acknowledgments

Prof. Gerald Moritz (Martin Luther University, Germany) is highly appreciated for kindly arranging for the first author to undertake a study visit to Halle (Saale), Germany, the place where specimens of Limothrips cerealium were collected during 2010. Two anonymous reviewers are also highly appreciated for providing useful comments on an earlier draft of this paper.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This study was supported by Iran National Science Foundation (INSF) [project number 93037979].