Generic diagnosis

Female macropterous or micropterous. Head almost as long as wide, prolonged in front of eyes; maxillary palps 2- or 3-segmented; eyes without pigmented facets; ocellar setae I absent; setae III lateral to fore ocellus and elongate; six pairs of postocular setae, setae II posterior to this row of setae. Antennae 7-segmented, segment I without paired dorso-apical setae, III and IV with sense-cones simple; III–VI with microtrichia on both surfaces. Pronotum with two pairs of long posteroangular setae; one pair of anteromarginal setae usually well-developed; three pairs of posteromarginal setae. Mesonotum with median pair of setae far from posterior margin; campaniform sensilla present. Metanotum with narrow anastomosing striae; median pair of setae far from anterior margin; campaniform sensilla absent. Fore wing first vein usually with irregular-spaced setal row or with no long gap in setal row, second vein with many setae equally spaced; clavus with five veinal setae and one discal setae; posterior fringe cilia wavy. Prosternal ferna entire; basantra membranous, without setae; prospinasternum broad and transverse. Mesosternum with sternopleural sutures complete; endofurca with spinula. Metasternal endofurca without spinula. Tarsi 2-segmented. Tergites without posteromarginal craspeda; V–VIII with paired ctenidia; VIII with ctenidia posteromesad of spiracles; VIII with comb represented by a few microtrichia laterally; IX with MD setae well developed; X with complete median split. Sternites II–VII with 2–10 discal setae, no posteromarginal craspeda; sternites III–VII with three pairs of posteromarginal setae, II with two or three pairs; laterotergites without discal setae.
Male similar to female; sternites III–VII each with transverse pore plate.

Relationship data

Thripidae sub-family Thripinae: this is a diverse group involving more than 230 genera. Within this large group, Bolacothrips is a member of the Thrips genus-group (Mound, 2002), but in contrast to the other species with similar abdominal ctenidia the sense cones on antennal segments III and IV are simple not forked.

Biological data

Breeding only on species of Poaceae, and presumably on the leaves, but with no recorded genus-level specificity.

Distribution data

This is an Old World genus, with species in various warmer areas across this region, from southern Europe to Africa, India, Japan (Masumoto & Okajima, 2002), and Australia (Mound, 2011).

Nomenclatural data

Bolacothrips Uzel, 1895: 211. Type species Bolacothrips jordani Uzel, 1895, by monotypy.

Twelve species are listed in this genus (ThripsWiki, 2018), of which two are recorded from China:

graminis (Priesner, 1930: 6). (Bolacidothrips)
striatopennatus (Schmutz, 1913: 1002). (Thrips)

References

Masumoto M & Okajima S (2002) Two Bolacothrips species (Thysanoptera, Thripidae) from Japan. Bulletin of the Japanese Society for Coleopterology 5: 119–127.

Mound LA (2002) The Thrips and Frankliniella genus groups: the phylogenetic significance of ctenidia. Pp. 379–386 in Marullo R & Mound LA [eds] Thrips and Tospoviruses: Proceedings of the 7th International Symposium on Thysanoptera. Australian National Insect Collection, Canberra.

Mound LA (2011) Grass-dependent Thysanoptera of the family Thripidae from Australia. Zootaxa 3064: 1–40.