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 sub-apical 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.

This genus is closely related to Praepodothrips with which it shares most morphological characters, but it differs in having larger basantra. It is also similar to Karnyothrips and Okajimathrips, but Podothrips can be recognised by the developed basantra and metathoracic sternopleural sutures (Karnyothrips species have normal basantra and metathoracic sternopleural sutures absent), and the pronotal notopleural sutures complete (Okajimathrips with pronotal notopleural sutures incomplete).

Bicoloured with head, thorax and abdominal segments VIII–X brown, I–VII yellow but III–VII with brown median area; antennal segment I brown, II yellow with brown basal part, III–VII uniform yellow with VI–VII a little darker apex, VIII brown. All legs yellow with fore and middle coxae and fore femora brown (Fig. 20).

Head 1.2 times as long as wide, cheeks distinctly constricted towards base (Fig. 1); ocellar setae minute; postocular setae pointed at tips, half the length of eye, wide apart from each other (Fig. 1). Mouth-cone short, maxillary stylets reaching base of postocular setae, maxillary bridge present. Antennal segment sense cones: III with 1+1, IV with 1+1¹, V with 2+2, VI with 1¹+2, VII with 1 dorsal (Fig. 7).

Pronotum with no sculpture, am reduced, aa, ml, epim, and pa setae well developed with expanded apices, epim setae longest; notopleural sutures complete; basantra well developed, longer than wide (Fig. 1). Metanotum almost smooth; metathoracic sternopleural sutures well developed (Fig. 22). Fore femur expanded; fore tibia with a distinct apical tooth; fore tarsal tooth developed (Fig. 1). Fore wings slightly constricted medially, without duplicated cilia, sub-basal wing setae equal with length, S1 and S2 expanded at apex, S3 acute (Fig. 12).

Pelta hat-shaped with pair of campaniform sensilla (Fig. 14); tergites II–VII with two pairs of wing-retaining setae (Fig. 15); abdominal tergite IX setae S1 and S2 pointed at apex, shorter than tube; tube 0.54 times as long as head; anal setae 1.7 times as long as tube (Fig. 16).

(holotype female, in µm). Total length 2440. Head length 260, width across behind eyes210; eye length 85, width 55; postocular setae length 40. Antenna length 440, I–VIII length (width): 35(40), 50(30),55(25),60(30),55(25),50(25),52(25),35(22). Pronotum length 235, width 235; aa 12, ml 12, epim 45, pa 17. Fore wing length 960, sub-basal setae S1-S3 length 20, 15, 15. Pelta length 75, width 130.Tube length 140, anal setae length 240.

Holotype female. CHINA, Yunnan, Mengla County, on Bamboo leaves, 22.iv.1997, Y.F. Han. Paratype: one female with same data as holotype; one female, Fujian Prov., Xiamen City, on Bamboo leaves, 29.iv.1991, Y.F. Han; one female, Guangdong Prov., on Bamboo leaves, 29.iv.1992, Y.F. Han.

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).

This species name is composed of one Latin word, femoralis, based on the brown fore femora.

Figures 1–6. 

Podothrips species head, pronotum& fore legs 1 P. femoralis sp. nov. 2 P. lucasseni 3 P. luteus (from Okajima1978) 4 P. odonaspicola 5 P. sasacola 6 P. semiflavus.

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.

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).

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).

Figures 7–16. 

Podothrips species. 7–10 Antenna 7 P. femoralis sp. nov. 8 P. odonaspicola 9 P. sasacola 10 P. semiflavus. 11, 12 Base of forewing 11 P. sasacola 12 P. femoralis sp. nov. Some important features of P. femoralis sp. nov. 13 mesopresternum 14 Pelta 15 abdominal tergites IV–V 16 abdominal tergites IX–X.

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.

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.

Figures 17–22. 

Podothrips adult colour patterns 17 P. lucasseni 18 P. odonaspicola 19 P. semiflavus 20 P. femoralis sp. nov. 21 P. sasacola. Some important features of femoralis sp. nov. 22 mesopresternum and metathoracic sternopleural sutures. Scale bars: 200 microns.