Research Paper

Thrips fauna on mountainous regions in Taiwan Island, with description of a new species from montane areas, Thrips hehuanshanensis sp. nov. (Thysanoptera, Thripidae)

Watchalawalee Boonmee, Wen-Bin Yeh

Published on: 29 May 2025

Page: 389 - 397

DOI: 10.6165/tai.2025.70.389

Abstract

Many species of thrips are known to severely damage crops in the world. Although systematic studies on thrips have been conducted in Taiwan, DNA barcodes, provide important information in species delimitation, have not been established for Taiwanese thrips. Moreover, few studies have been conducted on thrips diversity from mountainous Taiwan, especially with altitudes of >2000 m. The study herein, thrips samples were acquired by picking flowers and using sweep nets from Taiwan island, in which several montane localities are higher than 2000 in elevation. DNA barcodes of thrips species were recorded and analyzed. Twelve thrips were found to be distributed in montane areas, of which Frankliniella intonsa (Trybom) was the dominant one, followed by Thrips palmi Karny and Thrips flavus Schrank. A new species of montane (>2600 m) Thrips hehuanshanensis sp. nov., morphologically similar to Taiwanese thrips Thrips formosanus Priesner, and two Japanese thrips, Thrips floreus Kurosawa and Thrips shiranesanus Masumoto & Okajima, is named and described. In addition to the COI barcoding analyses for the new species, measurements of male and female individuals of their body size and seta numbers in the vertex, nota, and abdomen are provided.

Keyword: Insect fauna, montane fauna, new species, Thrips, Thrips formosanus, Thrips floreus, Thrips shiranesanus

Literature Cited

Chang, N.T. 2012 Proceedings of the symposium on the management of thrips pests of agriculture and quarantine. National Pingtung University of Science and Technology, Pingtung, Taiwan, 25th?26th October 2012. 242 pp.

Dickey, A.M., Kumar, V., Hoddle, M.S., Funderburk, J.E., Morgan, J.K., Jara-Cavieres, A., Jr. Shatters, R.G., Osborne, L.S., McKenzie, C.L., Mans, B.J. 2015 The Scirtothrips dorsalis species complex: Endemism and invasion in a global pest. PLoS One 10(4): e0123747.
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0123747View Article Google Scholar

Hall, T.A. 1999 Bioedit: A user-friendly biological sequence alignment editor and analysis program for windows 95/98/nt. Nucl. Acids. Symp. Ser.41: 95?98.

Hua, T., Li, H.Y., Tsai, C.L., Wang, W.W., Lin, C.Y., Yeh, W.B. 2023 Composition and dynamics of hexapod communities on yushan bamboo (Yushania niitakayamensis) in the subtropical montane areas of Taiwan. Zool. Stud. 62: 9.
DOI: 10.6620/ZS.2023.62-09View Article Google Scholar

Karadjova, O., Krumov, V. 2015 Thysanoptera of Bulgaria. ZooKeys 504: 93?131.
DOI: 10.3897/zookeys.504.9576View Article Google Scholar

Letunic, I., Bork, P. 2024 Interactive Tree of Life (iTOL) v6: recent updates to the phylogenetic tree display and annotation tool. Nucleic. Acids. Res. 52(W1): W78?W82.
DOI: 10.1093/nar/gkae268View Article Google Scholar

Lin, S., Shieh, S., Yang, P. 2006 Distribution of benthic macroinvertebrates in mt. Hohuan area ponds, central Taiwan. Formosan Entomol. 26(3): 261?271.
DOI: 10.6661/TESFE.2006022View Article Google Scholar

Masumoto, M., Okajima, S. 2013 Review of the genus Thrips and related genera (Thysanoptera, Thripidae) from Japan. Zootaxa 3678(1): 1?65.
DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.3678.1.1View Article Google Scholar

Mound, L. 1996 The thysanoptera vector species of tospoviruses. Tospoviruses and Thrips of Floral and Vegetable Crops 431: 298?309.
DOI: 10.17660/ActaHortic.1996.431.26View Article Google Scholar

Mound, L.A. 2010 Species of the genus Thrips (thysanoptera, thripidae) from the afro-tropical region. Zootaxa 2423(1): 1?24.
DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.2423.1.1View Article Google Scholar

Mound, L.A. 2013 Order thysanoptera haliday, 1836. In: Zhang, Z.-Q.(ed.) animal biodiversity: An outline of higher-level classification and survey of taxonomic richness (addenda 2013). Zootaxa 3703(1): 49?50.
DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.3703.1.11View Article Google Scholar

Mound, L.A., Azidah, A. 2009 Species of the genus Thrips (thysanoptera) from peninsular malaysia, with a checklist of recorded thripidae. Zootaxa 2023(1): 55?68.
DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.2023.1.4View Article Google Scholar

Mound, L.A., Kibby, G. 1998 Thysanoptera: An identification guide. Second Edition. CAB International: Wallingford, UK. 78 pp.

Mound, L.A., Ng, Y. 2009 An illustrated key to the genera of thripinae (Thysanoptera) from south east asia. Zootaxa 2265(1): 27?47.
DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.2265.1.2View Article Google Scholar

Mound, L.A., Wang, Z., Lima, E.F.B., Marullo, R. 2022 Problems with the concept of "pest" among the diversity of pestiferous thrips. Insects 13(1): 1?61.
DOI: 10.3390/insects13010061View Article Google Scholar

Murai, T. 2002 The pest and vector from the east: Thrips palmi. Proceedings of the Thrips and Tospoviruses: Proceedings of the 7th International Symposium on Thysanoptera. Canberra, Australian National Insect Collection, 19?32.

Nguyen, L.T., Schmidt, H.A., Von Haeseler, A., Minh, B.Q. 2015 Iq-tree: A fast and effective stochastic algorithm for estimating maximum-likelihood phylogenies. Mol. Biol. Evol. 32(1): 268?274.
DOI: 10.1093/molbev/msu300View Article Google Scholar

Palmer, J.M. 1992 Thrips (Thysanoptera) from Pakistan to the pacific: A review. Bulletin of the British Museum (Natural History), Entomology Series 61: 1?76.

Tamura, K., Stecher, G., Kumar, S. 2021 Mega11: Molecular evolutionary genetics analysis version 11. Mol. Biol. Evol. 38(7): 3022?3027.
DOI: 10.1093/molbev/msab120View Article Google Scholar

ThripsWiki 2025 Thripswiki - providing information on the world's thrips. Available from:http://thrips.info/wiki/Main_Page. Accessed on 12 May 2025.

Tyagi, K., Kumar, V. 2015 The Thrips formosanus group from asia and australia with a new species of the genus Thrips (thysanoptera: Thripidae) from India. Zootaxa 3947(2): 296?300.
DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.3947.2.12View Article Google Scholar

Wang, C.L. 2002 Thrips of taiwan: Biology and taxonomy. Taiwan Agricultural Research Institute, Special Publication 99: 1?328.

Wang, C.L. 2007 Hydatothrips and Neohydatothrips (Thysanoptera, Thripidae) of East and South Asia with three new species from Taiwan. Zootaxa 1575(1): 47?68.
DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.1575.1.3View Article Google Scholar

Wang, C.L. 2012 View of thrips problem through international research activities. Formosan Entomol. Spec. Pub. 15: 1?13. (In Chinese)

Wang, C.L. 2016 Taxonomical description pf terebrantia thrips (insects: Thysanoptera) of taiwan. Tari special publication 191. Taiwan Agricultural Research Institute, Taichung 337 pp.

Weng, Y.M., Yeh, W.B., Yang, M.M. 2016a A new species of alpine apenetretus kurnakov from Taiwan: Evidences from DNA barcodes and morphological characteristics (Coleoptera, Carabidae, Patrobini). ZooKeys 584: 121?134.
DOI: 10.3897/zookeys.584.6320View Article Google Scholar

Weng, Y.M., Yang, M.M., Yeh, W.B. 2016b A comparative phylogeographic study reveals discordant evolutionary histories of alpine ground beetles (Coleoptera, Carabidae). Ecol. Evol. 6(7): 2061?2073.
DOI: 10.1002/ece3.2006View Article Google Scholar

Wu, C.Y., Tzeng, H.Y., Qiu, Q.A., Wang, C.M., Liu, S.Q., Tseng, Y.H. 2013 Flowering phenology of East Xue Trail of Xue Mountain. J. For. Res. 35: 223?240.

Yeh, W.B., Li, H.Y., Liao, Y.Y. 2012 Composition and seasonal dynamics of insect communities in thicket shrubs in Xue Mountain glacial cirque. J. Natl. Park 22: 18?26.