New Species of Thrips Discovered in Seychelles
Posted on May 16, 2014
A new species of thrips has been discovered in the Seychelles. There are about 6,000 species of thrips, which are also known by names like thunderflies, corn lice and thunderblights.
Some of the insects are considered pests. The new species was discovered by Sverre Kobro from Bioforsk Plant Health, the Norwegian Institute for Agricultural and Environmental Research. Kobro travels the world in search of thrips. Kobro found the new species, Urothrips kobroi, on the Praslin Island in the Seychelles. The species was name in honor of Kobro to honor his scientific work on the order Thysanoptera
Urothrips kobroi measures only about 1 to 2 millimeters in length. The genus it belongs to live mainly in leaf litter and feed on fungus. An article about the new thrips species was published here in Zootaxa.