Thrips
| Thrips Temporal range: 299–0 Ma Permian – recent |
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| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Class: | Insecta |
| Subclass: | Pterygota |
| Superorder: | Exopterygota |
| Order: |
Thysanoptera Haliday, 1836 |
| Families | |
Thrips (order Thysanoptera) are minute, slender insects with fringed wings (thus the scientific name, from the Greek θύσανος thysanos ("fringe") + πτερόν pteron ("wing")). Other common names for thrips include thunderflies, thunderbugs, storm flies, thunderblights, storm bugs, corn flies, corn lice, freckle bugs, and physopods. Thrips species feed on a large variety of plants and animals by puncturing them and sucking up the contents. A large number of thrips species are considered pests, because they feed on plants with commercial value. Some species of thrips feed on other insects or mites and are considered beneficial, while some feed on fungal spores or pollen. Approximately 6,000 species have been described. Thrips are generally tiny (1 mm long or less) and are not good flyers, although they can be carried long distances by the wind. In the right conditions, like indoor growing rooms or greenhouses, many species can exponentially increase in population size and form large swarms because of a lack of natural predators, making them an irritation to humans.
Like the words sheep, deer, and moose, the word thrips is used for both the singular and plural forms, so there may be many thrips or a single thrips. The word thrips is from the Greek θρίψ, meaning "woodworm".
Thrips are small hemimetabolic insects with a distinctive cigar-shaped bauplan. They are elongated with transversely constricted bodies. They range in size from 0.5 to 14 millimetres (0.020 to 0.551 in) in length for the larger predatory thrips, but most thrips are about 1 mm in length. Flight-capable thrips have two similar, strap-like pairs of wings with a ciliated fringe (from which the order derives its name). Their legs usually end in two tarsal segments with a bladder-like structure known as an "arolium" at the pretarsus. This structure can be everted by means of hemolymph pressure, enabling the insect to walk on vertical surfaces.
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Wikipedia