Paithrips circularis Nonaka & Jangvitaya, 1994: 47.

Female. Body largely yellow, but head light brown; antennal segments I, apical half of VI and V brown, the remaining yellow. Fore wing light brown with 3 pale areas.

Head (Fig. 16) wider than long with transverse lines posteriorly, slightly constricted just behind compound eyes; cheeks slightly rounded; ocellar setae setae III longer than II, situated at posterior margin of ocellar triangle; postocular setae I and II are sub-equal in length, longer than setae III and IV. Mouth-cone short and rounded.

Pronotum longer than head, sculptured with distinctly transverse anastomosing striae on dorsal surface, along with some small circles near lateral margin in posterior third (Fig. 18); two pairs of posteroangular setae well developed, inner pair longer than outer pair; two or three pairs of anteromarginal setae often very long; three pairs of posteromarginal setae present. Mesonotum sculptured with transverse anastomosing lines medially (Fig. 17); metanotum distinctly reticulated, median pair of setae behind anterior margin (Fig. 17). Fore wing first vein with 7 basal setae, 2–3 apical setae, posteromarginal cilia wavy.

Abdominal tergites II–VIII weakly sculptured with transverse lines anteriorly, tergite VIII without posteromarginal comb, tergite X without median slit.

Material examined. 1♀, China, Hainan, Wanning City, Niulou Town (18°46'N, 110°15'E; elev. 30 m), collected from Averrhoa carambola L, 27 November 2014, leg. Junyu Chen.

Distribution. China (Hainan); Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia.

Remarks. The genus Paithrips was established by Nonaka and Jangvitaya in 1994 with the type species Paithrips circularis from Malaysia and Thailand. Later, Masumoto and Okajima (2012) described a second species in the genus from Vietnam. This genus is similar to the genus Okajimaella, but it can be separated from the latter by the dorsal surface of pronotum apparently sculptured with transverse lines and abdominal tergite IX with a pair of posteromarginal drepanae (Nonaka & Jangvitaya, 1994). Paithrips is newly recorded from China in this study. The generic epithet “ pai ” is the meaning of bamboo in Thai and refers to the species of Paithrips mainly inhabiting in bamboo (Nonaka & Jangvitaya, 1994). However, Paithrips circularis, the single specimen recorded here, was collected from the leaf of starfruit.

Funding This study was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31372236) and the Special Fund for Agro-scientific Research in the Public Interest (201203092).

Acknowledgements We are grateful to Prof. Yueguan Fu (Environment and Plant Protection Institute, Chinese Academy of Tropical Agricultural Sciences, Hainan) for providing help in field work and Dr. Majid Mirab-balou (College of Agriculture, Ilam University, Iran) for providing useful information in identification of the genus Bregmatothrips. Thanks are also due to anonymous referees for their editorial advice and constructive comments.