Chilli thrips or yellow tea thrips

The chilli thrips or yellow tea thrips, Scirtothrips dorsalis Hood, is an extremely successful invasive species of pest-thrips which has expanded rapidly from Asia over the last twenty years, and is gradually achieving a global distribution. It has most recently been reported in St. Vincent (2004) Florida (2005), Texas (2006), and Puerto Rico (2007). It is a pest of economic significance with a broad host range, with prominent pest reports on crops including pepper, mango, citrus,strawberry, grapes, cotton, tea, peanuts, blueberry, and roses. Chilli thrips appear to feed preferentially on new growth, and infested plants usually develop characteristic wrinkled leaves, with distinctive brown scarring along the veins of leaves, the buds of flowers, and the calyx of fruit. Feeding damage can reduce the sale value of crops produced, and in sufficient numbers, kill plants already aggravated by environmental stress. This thrips has also been implicated in the transmission of three tospoviruses, but there is some controversy over its efficiency as a vector. 

This thrips has a rapid life cycle, and can develop from egg to adult in slightly less than two weeks under optimal weather conditions.

A tentative (but inconclusive) field identification can be made of this thrips by searching for the following traits under low power magnification: small size (under a millimeter in length), yellow coloration, dark antennae, and dark striping on the lower abdomen.

It can be specifically identified and confirmed through the presence of forked sense cones on antennal segments III and IV, antennomeres I-II are pale and III to IX are dark; there are three discal setae on the lateral margins of abdominal tergites, with pronotal posteromarginal seta II nearly one and a half times the length of I or III, a complete posteromarginal comb on tergite VII; and three ocellar setae with III between posterior ocelli.

Recent research concludes that S. dorsalis does represent a species complex of three or more disparate species who are morphologically similar but genetically distinct