Review of Podothrips from China (Thysanoptera, Phlaeothripidae), with one new species and three new records

Abstract Podothrips species occur on the leaves of various Poaceae, including bamboo and grasses. An illustrated identification key is given here to the six Podothrips species recorded from China. These include P. femoralis Dang & Qiao, sp. nov., and P. sasacola Kurosawa, P. odonaspicola (Kurosawa), and P. semiflavus Hood that are newly recorded from China.


Introduction
Haplothripini, a tribe distributed worldwide, is the only well-defined and named tribe in the Phlaeothripinae (Mound and Minaei 2007). Most species of this tribe are related to flower-feeding, but some are thought to be predatory, such as Podothrips species. A list of 34 genera in this tribe was provided by Mound and Minaei (2007) in a review of the species recorded from Australia. Subsequently, Minaei and Mound (2008) revised the Haplothripini from Iran with four genera, and Dang et al. (2014) described 19 genera from Southeast Asia and China in this tribe. Until now, this tribe includes 34 genera and approximately 580 species worldwide.
Podothrips species appear to be predators and live on plants of the family Poaceae. The genus is distinguished from other Haplothripini genera by the following characters: prosternal basantra strongly developed and longer than wide; pronotal anteromarginal setae minute. Ritchie (1974) provided a key to 18 species of this genus with three new species and four generic synonyms. Subsequently, four species were described from Thailand, Malaysia, China (Taiwan) and India (Bhatti 1978;Okajima 1978), and two from New Zealand (Mound and Walker 1986). Okajima (2006) recorded three species from Japan, Mound and Minaei (2007) recorded 10 species from Australia, and one species was recently described from Iran (Minaei 2015). In China (Taiwan), two species were recorded, P. lucasseni (Krüger) and P. luteus Okajima (Okajima 1986). At present, the genus Podothrips includes 31 species worldwide (ThripsWiki 2019).
As part of ongoing studies on Haplothripini from China, this review of the genus Podothrips provides an illustrated identification key to six species with one new species and three newly recorded species.

Materials and methods
The descriptions, drawings, and photomicrograph images provided here are produced from slide-mounted specimens using an Olympus BX53 and drawing tube. The following abbreviations are used for the pronotal setae:
The unit of measurements in this paper is micrometre. Specimens from China, including the holotype of the newly described species, are deposited in the National Zoological Museum of China (NZMC) Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China, with some specimens in the School of Bioscience and Engineering, Shaanxi University of Technology, Hanzhong, China.
Diagnosis. Small sized, usually bicoloured brown and yellow, but a few uniformly brown. Head smooth, longer than wide, with one pair of postocular setae; antennae eight-segmented, segment III with one or two sense cones, IV with two or three. Pronotum well developed, am always minute; notopleural sutures complete; basantra usually longer than wide; fore tarsus with tooth on inner surface, fore tibia often with a subapical tubercle or tooth. Mesopresternum complete, boat-shaped. Metathoracic sternopleural sutures well developed. Forewing fully developed, slightly constricted medially, with or without duplicated cilia. Pelta bell-shaped. Abdominal tergites II-VII each with two pairs of wing-retaining setae. Tube shorter than head, anal setae long than tube.
Measurements ( Comments. This new species is similar to P. sasacola in forewing without duplicated cilia and body bicoloured, but differs in having all legs yellow with fore legs femora brown, antennal segment V-VI uniformly yellow and VII yellow with apical third brown (Fig. 20), meso-and metanotum brown, all developed pronotal setae expanded at apex (Fig. 1), and fore wing sub-basal setae S1 and S2 expanded (Fig.  12). In contrast, P. sasacola has all legs yellow, antennal segments V-VI yellow with apical half brown, VII uniformly brown, meso-and metanotum yellow (Fig. 21), pronotum aa, ml and pa pointed at apex, epim setae expanded (Fig. 5), and sub-basal setae S1 and S2 pointed (Fig. 11). It is also related to P. odonaspicola and P. bicolor Seshadri & Ananthakrishnan in the bicoloured body, but this new species can be distinguished by forewing without duplicated cilia (forewing with duplicated cilia in P. odonaspicola), and fore tibia with distinct subapical tooth (fore tibia without distinct subapical tooth in P. odonaspicola) (Figs 1, 4), and by fore femora brown (all femora yellow in P. bicolor).
Etymology. This species name is composed of one Latin word, femoralis, based on the brown fore femora.

Remarks.
Described from Java on sugar cane, and widely distributed in Asia, this is the only Podothrips from China that is uniformly brown (Fig. 17). P. hawaiiensis from Hawaii and P. oryzae from Thailand were placed as synonyms of P. lucasseni by Ritchie (1974). This species was recorded by Okajima (1986) from China (Taiwan), and a female and a male from Guizhou Province have been examined here. Fig. 3 Podothrips luteus Okajima, 1978: 34. Remarks. This species is known only from China (Taiwan) on grass. Unfortunately, no specimens were examined here. According to the description, it can be distinguished easily from the other species considered here by the bicoloured body with most of the abdomen yellow -abdominal segments I-IX and basal third of tube yellow (Okajima 1978).

Podothrips odonaspicola (Kurosawa) Figs 4, 8, 18
Haplothrips odonaspicola Kurosawa, 1937: 266. Remarks. Described from Japan (Tokyo) on bamboo leaf sheaths, this species is recorded here from China (Sichuan, Hubei) for the first time, based on three females. The brown thorax and yellow abdominal pattern are similar to the new species, P. femoralis, but it may be distinguished by the forewing with duplicated cilia and fore tibia without distinct subapical tooth (Fig. 4).  Kurosawa Figs 5,9,11,21 Podothrips sasacola Kurosawa, 1940: 100. Remarks. Previously known only from Japan, this species is quite similar to P. bicolor in the body colour pattern -head, pronotum, and abdominal segments VIII-X brown. Specimens are identified here as P. sasacola have antennal segments III-IV each with two sense cones (Fig. 9), and the fore tibia with a distinct inner apical tubercle (Fig. 5) as described by Okajima (2006). This species is recorded here for the first time from China, Sichuan, based on five males taken from reeds. Figs 6,10,19 Podothrips semiflavus Hood, 1913: 67. Remarks. Described from Puerto Rico, America on Panicum leaves, this species is recorded from Egypt and Uganda by Ritchie (1974), with P. aegyptiacus Priesner placed as a synonym. This is one of two species from China in which the thorax is yellow (Fig.  19), but P. luteus from Taiwan has abdominal segments VIII-X brown, whereas the abdomen of P. semiflavus is almost yellow with just the basal third of the tube brown (Fig.  19). One female from Guangdong has been studied here, and this is the first record of the species from China.