Podothrips sasacola Kurosawa

Podothrips sasacola Kurosawa, 1940: 100.

Podothrips bicolor Seshadri & Ananthakrishnan, 1954: 221 syn.n.

These two bicoloured species share a similar colour pattern, as well as structural characters, but they have been distinguished from each other by the number of the sense cones on antennal segment IV. This segment bears one outer and one inner sense cone in sascola but in bicolor there is one outer and one inner + one small sense cone (Ritchie 1974; Okajima 2006). This small sense cone is slightly lower on the segment than the main sense cone on the outer side (Figs 11 –12). Evaluating the presence of this small sense cone in statistically significant numbers is technically difficult due to its small size. However, we have collected and studied the long series of specimens listed below from bamboo, and out of 50 specimens examined, 10 of them clearly have two sense cones on the outer margin of segment IV, whereas the others have only the major sense cone. This variation in the sense cone number was compared with the holotype and paratype of P. bicolor. Given the absence of any biological evidence that two closely similar species of Podothrips co-exist on bamboo in India and Japan, and in the absence of any consistent morphological differences enabling the recognition of two segregates, we here conclude that bicolor should be regarded as a junior synonym of sascola.

Specimens studied. India, Tamil Nadu, Madras, holotype female, allotype male of Podothrips bicolor, from bamboo leaves, 17.i.1953 (TNA) Reg. No. 1452/H8 to 1453/H8 (in National Zoological Collections, Kolkata, India). West Bengal, Kolkata, Salt Lake (N22.58, E88.41, 11m), 29 females, 6 males, from bamboo, 22.vi.2019, Devkant Singha; also 25 females, 10 males preserved in 70% ethanol for further analysis.