Banded Greenhouse Thrips: Appearance, Territory, Damage, and Life Cycle

Latin Name: Hercinothrips Femoralis

Appearance: The insect known as the banded greenhouse thrips, Hercinothrips femoralis, lives outside on weeds and vegetables but can occasionally make it inside to feed on indoor plants. Because it is believed to have entered the United States on sugar beets, it is also known as the sugar beet thrips. About 1/32 inch long, females start off mostly yellow before progressively darkening to brown or black. The wings are short and fringed and have three white stripes along with crimson eyes.

• Adults: The 1.5 mm long female banded greenhouse thrips are predominantly yellow at first but progressively become brown or black. The wings are small, fringed, and gray-brown with three white crossbands. The eyes are red. Men are uncommon.
• Eggs: The white, 0.25 mm-long, transparent, elongated eggs are initially deposited. Each egg wells and turns a dull white color before hatching.
• Larvae: The length of the yellow or white larvae ranges from 0.48 to 1.5 mm. They have crimson eyes and no wings.
• Pupae and Prepupae: These whitish developmental stages are seen on the leaves. On the lower surface, people are often more numerous.

Hosts Plants: Many crops, including cucumbers, begonias, cactus, date palm, bananas, callas, cestrum, amaryllis, aralia, chrysanthemum, dracaena, rubber tree, gardenia, croton, hydrangea, moon flower, schefflera, screw pine, tomato, and Mexican tea, are attacked in greenhouses by banded greenhouse thrips.

Territory: Banded greenhouse thrips are widely dispersed around the planet; despite being intermittently distributed throughout North America. They are notably prevalent in East Africa, Europe, and the British Isles.

Damage Insect Cause: On the bottom as well as the top of leaves, you can find banded greenhouse thrips. They are not particularly mobile, and even when startled, they often remain still. They pierce the cells of leaves and eat plant sap. At the tip of their abdomen, larvae hold a droplet of excrement. These droplets enlarge until they fall, at which point another droplet is created. As a result, the leaves develop a distinctive damage pattern that includes silvery spots and black dots.

Life History and Habits: Eggs are laid along the stem or on the underside of leaves. Larvae appear and start eating around two weeks later. On the underside of leaves, juvenile larvae form colonies, and each individual is frequently coated in a slimy globule of feces. The larvae go through four instars of development while feeding, molting between each stage.

The highly developed larvae are generally found among dried-out leaves or among leaf midribs. Banded greenhouse thrips pupate after a larval stage of around 18 days. Shortly later, adult thrips emerge; they are not as voracious consumers as the larvae. Females may reproduce with or without mating, and adults have a lifespan of at least 40 days. Rarely are males of this species discovered.