Thysanoptera
| 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 (1 mm long or less), slender insects with fringed wings and unique asymmetrical mouthparts. Different thrips species feed on a large variety of plants and animals, puncturing them and sucking up the contents. Approximately 6,000 species have been described. They fly only weakly, and their feathery wings are unsuitable for conventional flight; instead, thrips exploit an unusual mechanism, clap and fling, to create lift using an unsteady circulation pattern with transient vortices near the wings.
Many thrips species are pests of commercially important crops. A few species serve as vectors for over 20 viruses that cause plant disease, especially the Tospoviruses. Some species of thrips are beneficial as they feed on other insects or mites. In the right conditions, such as in 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.
The generic and English name thrips is a direct transliteration of the ancient Greek θρίψ, thrips, meaning "woodworm". Like some other animal names such as sheep, deer, and moose, the word thrips is both the singular and plural forms, so there may be many thrips or a single thrips. Other common names for thrips include thunderflies, thunderbugs, storm flies, thunderblights, storm bugs, corn flies, corn lice, freckle bugs, and physopods. The name of the order Thysanoptera is constructed from the ancient Greek words θύσανος, thysanos, "tassel or fringe", and πτερόν, pteron, "wing", for the insects' fringed wings.
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 mm (0.02 to 0.55 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 fringe of bristles. 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