''Franklinothrips'' is a genus of

thrips Thrips ( order Thysanoptera) are minute (mostly long or less), slender insects with fringed wings and unique asymmetrical mouthparts. Different thrips species feed mostly on plants by puncturing and sucking up the contents, although a few are ...

with

pantropical A pantropical ("all tropics") distribution is one which covers Tropics, tropical regions of both hemispheres. Examples of species include caecilians, modern sirenians and the plant genera ''Acacia'' and ''Bacopa''. ''Neotropical'' is a zoogeogra ...

distribution.

Name

The genus name is derived from the surname of entomologist H. J. Franklin, who described thrips taxa in the early 1900s. The thrips genus '' Frankliniella'' is also named after him. Franklin worked at the entomology department of the

University of Massachusetts Amherst The University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass Amherst, UMass) is a public research university in Amherst, Massachusetts and the sole public land-grant university in Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Founded in 1863 as an agricultural college, it ...

in the 1930s.

Reproduction

Most species are apparently bisexual (have both males and females) and occur only in small areas. An exception is ''F. vespiformis'', which is unisexual (mostly females) and occurs in many tropical countries. Only few males were produced during rearing programmes involving ''F. vespiformis''.

Mimicry

The fast-running females are easily misidentified as ants or bethylid wasps (superfamily

Chrysidoidea The superfamily Chrysidoidea is a very large cosmopolitan group (some 6,000 described species, and many more undescribed) , all of which are parasitoids or cleptoparasites of other insects. There are three large, common families (Bethylidae, Chr ...

). Particularly the

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

n species ''F. megalops'' very closely mimics ants in its behavior and body form. Males are less ant-like in appearance. They are smaller, have longer antennae and a less constricted waist.

Feeding behavior

''F. orizabensis'' is known to be unable to survive solely on plant food. It is used as a control agent against thrips on

avocado The avocado (''Persea americana'') is a medium-sized, evergreen tree in the laurel family (Lauraceae). It is native to the Americas and was first domesticated by Mesoamerican tribes more than 5,000 years ago. Then as now it was prized for i ...

trees. Together with ''F. vespiformis'' it has been marketed in Europe as a control agent against thrips in

greenhouse A greenhouse (also called a glasshouse, or, if with sufficient heating, a hothouse) is a structure with walls and roof made chiefly of Transparent ceramics, transparent material, such as glass, in which plants requiring regulated climatic condit ...

s. ''F. vespiformis'' also feeds on

mite Mites are small arachnids (eight-legged arthropods). Mites span two large orders of arachnids, the Acariformes and the Parasitiformes, which were historically grouped together in the subclass Acari, but genetic analysis does not show clear evid ...

nymph A nymph ( grc, νύμφη, nýmphē, el, script=Latn, nímfi, label=Modern Greek; , ) in ancient Greek folklore is a minor female nature deity. Different from Greek goddesses, nymphs are generally regarded as personifications of nature, are ty ...

s of a

whitefly Whiteflies are Hemipterans that typically feed on the undersides of plant leaves. They comprise the family Aleyrodidae, the only family in the superfamily Aleyrodoidea. More than 1550 species have been described. Description and taxonomy The A ...

species and the larvae of an agromyzid fly. ''F. megalops'' has been used for thrips control in "internal landscapes".

Taxonomy

The three neotropical species ''F. orizabensis'', ''F. tenuicornis'' and ''F. vespiformis'' are closely related. The species ''F. megalops'', ''F. rarosae'' and ''F. variegatus'' appear to part of a

cline Cline may refer to: Science * Cline (biology), a measurable gradient in a single trait in a species across its geographical range * Cline (hydrology), a fluid layer with a property that varies * Cline (mathematics) or generalised circle, a circl ...

across the Old World tropics from Africa to Australia, with ''F. rarosae'' being intermediate in appearance as well as distribution. The only genus closely related to ''Franklinothrips'' is '' Corynothripoides'' from Africa, and its only species, ''C. marginipennis'', could even belong to the same genus. ''F. caballeroi'' and ''F. suzukii'' are possibly the same species, with one having been distributed through horticultural trade.

References

* * Includes key to species and color photographs. * Thrips of the World Checklist
Genus ''Franklinothrips''
{{Taxonbar, from=Q5492139 Insects of Africa Thrips genera Terebrantia Insects of Asia Pantropical fauna