Pear Thrips – Taeniothrips inconsequens

Pear Thrips (Taeniothrips inconsequens)

Common Name: Taeniothrips inconsequens

Latin Name: Pear Thrips

Appearance:

• The adult pear thrips are 1.2 to 1.5 mm long and have a thin brownish body. Its skull has expanded behind its ruby eyes.
• The antennal segments are joined extensively, and the third segment is yellowish brown. Tarsi are yellowish-brown in color, and the fore tarsi feature an apical tooth for digging.
• Wings are large, thin, and fringed with long hairs, like in other thrips species. The front wings are brown, while the back wings are whitish.
• The larvae of the pear thrips (also known as nymphs) are tiny and white, with red eyes. It is distinguished from other thrips larvae by a characteristic ring of black or brown spines around the tip of the abdomen.

Host plant:

Maple, birch, beech, ash, and cherry are host plants.

Territory:

The species is found in California, the northeastern United States, and southern Canada.

Damages caused by Pear Thrips:

Pear, apple, and other deciduous fruit trees are all susceptible. Adults enter or begin feeding on the bud tip, gradually working their way in. Eggs are placed under the bud scales, petals, and sepals, on stems, and other succulent flower and leaf portions. For around three weeks, the larvae eat voraciously, compounding the harm inflicted by the adults. Feeding often focuses on floral portions, causing bloom buds to seem faded and burned or to fall off altogether.

Life history and habits:

Every year, there is one generation. Insects spend the winter as pupae in the earth, emerging as adults in early spring to feed on emerging plants and flower buds. The mid vein or petioles are where the eggs are deposited. The delicate white and transparent developing larvae feed on leaves until early June when they descend to the earth to pupate.