Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-g7gxr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-10T12:30:15.316Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

A new look at thrips (Thysanoptera) mouthparts, their action and effects of feeding on plant tissue

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 July 2009

I. F. Chisholm  and
T. Lewis
I. F. Chisholm
Affiliation:
Rothamsted Experimental Station, Harpenden, Herts., AL5 2JQ, UK
T. Lewis
Affiliation:
Rothamsted Experimental Station, Harpenden, Herts., AL5 2JQ, UK
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

To elucidate how thrips feed, the mouthparts of Limothrips cerealium (Hal.) were examined in dead specimens by scanning electron microscopy and plasma-ashing, and in living specimens by cinematography as individuals fed through a transparent membrane on clear liquid containing small polystyrene latex particles that made its flow visible. Close contact with the food substrate was maintained by the labral pad. The single mandible was used to pierce the membrane and was then withdrawn rapidly and replaced by the maxillary stylets, which formed a tube with either a terminal or sub-terminal opening into which food was drawn by cibarial pumping at 2–6 pulsations/s. Oscillations in the surrounding fluid caused by such pumping were detectable up to 58 μm from the maxillary opening. Feeding persisted from a few seconds to up to half an hour, and when complete the stylets were withdrawn either rapidly and together, or more gradually by sliding one against the other. Whole chloroplasts up to 6 μm in diameter were ingested even though the diameter of the maxillary tube was about 1 μm. The thrips consumed the contents of ruptured plant cells at about 8·5 × 1O-5 μl/min, equivalent to almost 12·5% of their body weight per hour. Probing and feeding removed the surface wax from leaves, and the cuticle was so exposed that it often wrinkled. Leaf cells beneath a pierced epidermal cell were usually emptied completely, and little seepage from the wounded tissue occurred after stylet withdrawal. After intensive feeding, many mesophyll cells were totally destroyed and others showed extreme plasmolysis; grana sacks were contorted and large starch grains formed due to desiccation. Above such internal damage the epidermal cells collapsed, and the outer cuticle wrinkled and appeared silvery before turning yellow and brown.

Type
Original Articles
Information
Bulletin of Entomological Research , Volume 74 , Issue 4 , December 1984 , pp. 663 - 675
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1984

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Chisholm, I. F. & Doncaster, C. C. (1982). Studying and recording the feeding behaviour of thrips.—Entomologia exp. appl. 31, 324–327.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Davies, R. G. (1958). Observations on the morphology of the head and mouthparts in the Thysanoptera.—Proc. R. ent. Soc. Lond. (A) 33, 7–106.Google Scholar
Day, M. F. & Irzykiewicz, H. (1954). Physiological studies on thrips in relation to transmission of tomato spotted wilt virus.—Aust. J. biol. Sci. 7, 274–281.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Esau, K. (1961). Anatomy of seed plants.—376 pp. New York & London, Wiley.Google Scholar
Galbreath, R. A. & Galbreath, N. H. (1977). A simple method for making fine dissecting needles.—Ent. News 88, 143–144.Google Scholar
Heming, B. S. (1978). Structure and function of the mouthparts in larvae of Haplothrips verbasci (Osborn) (Thysanoptera, Tubulifera, Phlaethripidae).—J. Morph. 156, 1–37.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jones, T. (1954). The external morphology of Chirothrips hamatus (Trybom) (Thysanoptera).—Trans. R. ent. Soc. Lond. 105, 163–187.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Klee, O. (1958). Uber die Biologie und Saugtätigkeit des Thysanopteren Taeniothrips laricivorus Krat. und das Lärchenwipfelsterben.—Waldhygiene 2, 166–181.Google Scholar
Lew, T. (1973). Thrips, their biology, ecology and economic importance.—349 pp. London, Academic Press.Google Scholar
Mickoleit, E. (1963). Untersuchungen zur Kopfmorphologie der Thysanopteren.—Zool. Jb. (Anat.) 81, 101–150.Google Scholar
Milne, D. L. & Manicom, B. Q. (1978). Feeding apparatus of the South African citrus thrips, Scirtothrips aurantii Faure.—Citrus and Subtropical Fruit Journal no. 535, 6–11.Google Scholar
Mound, L. A. (1970). Convoluted maxillary stylets and the systematics of some phlaeothripine Thysanoptera from Casuarina trees in Australia.—Aust. J. Zool. 18, 439–463.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mound, L. A. (1971). The feeding apparatus of thrips.—Bull. ent. Res. 60, 547–548.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mound, L. A., Heming, B. S. & Palmer, J. M. (1980). Phylogenetic relationships between the families of recent Thysanoptera (Insecta).—Zool. J. Linn. Soc. 69, 111–141.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reyne, A. (1927). Untersuchungen über die Mundteile der Thysanopteren.—Zool. Jb. 49, 391–500.Google Scholar
Richards, O. W. & Davies, R. G. (1977). Imm's general textbook of entomology. Volume 1.—10th edn, 418pp. London, Chapman & Hall.Google Scholar
Seymour, M. K., Minter, B. A. & Doncaster, C. C. (1978). A low-light remote recording system used to study nematode behaviour.—Nematologica 24, 167–174.Google Scholar
Wallsgrove, R. M., Lea, P. J. & Miflin, B. J. (1979). Distribution of the enzymes of nitrogen assimilation within the pea leaf cell.—Pl. Physiol. 63, 232–236.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed