title: Two new ectoparasitic species of Aulacothrips Hood, 1952 (Thysanoptera: Heterothripidae) associated with ant-tended treehoppers (Hemiptera).
abstract: Aulacothrips Hood, 1952 is a remarkable South American genus of ectoparasitic thrips which feed on gregarious ant-tended hemipterans (Hemiptera: Auchenorrhyncha). Here we describe two new species of this genus infesting membracid treehoppers in Colombia and Brazilian Amazon, and provide a key to the five Aulacothrips spp. now recognised. Aulacothrips levinotus n. sp. is unique in having pronotum with only two pairs of major setae; and Aulacothrips tenuis n. sp. has unusually long abdominal tergite IX. These findings will be helpful for understanding the species diversification in this genus, bringing a new perspective on the diversity of Aulacothrips spp. and their myrmecophilous hemipteran hosts.
authors.affiliation: PPG-Ecologia, Instituto de Biociências, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil, cavalleri_adriano@yahoo.com.br.
authors.forename: Adriano
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Cavalleri
authors.forename: Lucas A
authors.initials: LA
authors.lastname: Kaminski
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001938:Brazil; D003105:Colombia; D005260:Female; D006430:Hemiptera / Q000469:parasitology*; D008297:Male; D013045:Species Specificity; D061149:Thysanoptera / Q000033:anatomy & histology* / Q000145:classification*