Female macropterous. Head prolonged anteriorly, with many transverse striae; maxillary palps 3-segmented; eyes large, without pigmented facets; ocellar setae I absent, III within ocellar triangle; four to five pairs of postocular setae. Antennae 8-segmented, segment I with paired dorso- apical setae, III–IV with long apical neck and sense-cones forked, III–VI with some microtrichial rows on both surfaces. Pronotum with many transverse striae; five pairs of posteromarginal setae but no long posteroangular setae. Mesonotum sculptured as pronotum; median pair of setae far from posterior margin; campaniform sensilla absent. Metanotum with anastomosing striae; median pair of setae behind anterior margin; campaniform sensilla absent. Fore wing first vein with long gap in setal row and two setae distally; clavus usually with four or five veinal and one discal setae; second vein with many equally spaced setae; posterior fringe hairs wavy. Prosternal ferna weakly connected medially; basantra membranous, without setae; prospinasternum broad and transverse. Mesosternum with very weak sternopleural sutures; endofurca with spinula. Metasternal endofurca with spinula. Tarsi 2-segmented. Tergites weakly divided from laterotergites, without ctenidia or craspeda; I–VIII setae S1 close together, with transverse striae except submedian areas; tergite VIII without marginal comb; IX with only posterior pair of campaniform sensilla; X without median split. Sternites without discal setae or craspeda; III–VII with three pairs of posteromarginal setae, II with two pairs, these setae in front of posterior margin.
Male similar to female; sternites III–VII each with or without numerous small pore plates.
Thripidae sub-family Thripinae: this is a diverse group involving more than 230 genera. This genus is considered a member of the Trichromothrips genus-group (Masumoto & Okajima, 2005).
Feeding and breeding on the fronds of the common and widespread Lygodium ferns.
This genus is distributed across southeast Asia to New Guinea
Octothrips Moulton, 1940: 243. Type species Octothrips suspensus Moulton, 1940, by monotypy.
Three species are recognised in this genus (ThripsWiki, 2018), of which one is recorded from China:
bhattii (Wilson, 1972: 52). (Apollothrips)
Bhatti JS (2003) Species of Octothrips Moulton 1940 (Terebrantia: Thripidae) living on ferns in south and southeast Asia, with Apollothrips Wilson 1972 as new synonym. Thysanoptera 2003: 15–24.
Masumoto M & Okajima S (2005) Trichromothrips Priesner (Thysanoptera, Thripidae) of Japan and Taiwan, with descriptions of four new species and a review of the Trichromothrips genus group of genera. Zootaxa, 1048: 1–27.
ThripsWiki (2018). ThripsWiki - providing information on the World's thrips. <http://thrips.info/wiki/Main_Page>