Litinsects #17: Thrips Today I’m talking about a lesser known group of insects called thrips, which most people probably haven’t seen before because they are quite tiny. I worked with thrips for my master’s thesis so I was able to learn a lot about them and get these great photos. Here go some fun facts... Thrips are small insects (around 1mm) with very narrow and fringed wings that make up the order THYSANOPTERA (Greek thysanos =fringe, pteron = wing). FYI, thrips is both the singular AND the plural form Their mouthparts are ASYMMETRICAL, a feature that is unique to the group. The right side is reduced (vestigial) or absent and only the left side is used to scrape open plant cells and extract contents These insects feed on a wide variety of plants and are often considered PESTS of commercial crops. They are also vectors for plant diseases Thrips go through incomplete metamorphosis (which I will explain in a post coming up). They lay their eggs into p...
Weekly fun facts about the world of insects