﻿CRAWFORD. SOME THYSANOPTERA OF MEXICO AND THE SOUTH 1 19 



with two extremely stout and moderately long bristles at tip, and four short 

 inconspicuous ones, also; second and eighth segments with spiracular plates 

 on each side, as described on mesothorax ; nearly all abdominal spines set on 

 chitinous plates. 



Before treatment in caustic potash and clearing in clove oil, the general 

 color of the insect is a deep black ; but after clearing, the chitinous plates 

 appear dark brown and the rest of the surface a clear transparent shade, show- 

 ing that the whole surface, in the natural state, is darkly pigmented, but this 

 pigment is more easily removed from the weakly chitinized portions. Owing 

 to the deep pigmentation of the two anal segments, it is difficult to determine 

 the sex of the insect. 



Measurements : Head, length .35 mm., width 27 mm. ; prothora.x, length 

 .34 mm., width .54 mm. ; mesothorax, width .82 mm. ; metathorax, width .85 

 mm. ; distance between mesocoxae .50 mm. ; between posterior coxae .47 mm. ; 

 abdomen, width .86 mm.; tube, length .34 mm.; total length 4.12 mm. An- 

 tennae: I .065 mm., II .097 mm.. Ill .31 mm., IV .17 mm., V .096 mm., VI 

 .076 mm., VII .075 mm. ; total .88 mm. ; color, natural, black. 



Described from one specimen. The writer, while on a trip up the slopes 

 of San Pedro mountain, near Guadalajara, reached into a thorny solanaceous 

 shrub to capture a beetle, and a moment later discovered this thysanopterous 

 insect on his hand ; repeatedly beating the same shrub failed to bring forth any 

 more of the insects. 



Food plant : A certain spiny solanaceous plant. 



Locality: San Pedro mountain, near Guadalajara, Mexico.; altitude 8000 

 feet. (Crawford.) 



It might be noted here that there is somewhat of a similarity between this 

 species and members of the Fam. Urothripidae Bagnall ; in that family the palpi 

 are one-segmented, the antennae seven-segmented, and the posterior coxae 

 widely separated, though the middle pair are more so. But inasmuch as 

 Kladothrips Froggatt, Allothrips Hood, and Neothrips Hood, all have the an- 

 tennae seven-segmented, and, furthermore, since this species does not possess 

 the eleven pairs of stigmata, the posterior coxae are not most widely separated, 

 and the bristles and spines are not by any means absent or obsolete, therefore 

 it is most reasonable to suppose that this new genus — for it probably is such — 

 belongs in the family Phloeothripidae, necessitating, however, some slight mod- 

 ification of the diagnosis of that family. A difference in palpi and antennae 

 is hardly enough to erect a new family on, when such differences are fre- 

 quently of questionable generic value. 



