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Photo#94252
Thrips - Aeolothrips kuwanaii - male - female

Thrips - Aeolothrips kuwanaii - Male Female
Thousand Oaks, Ventura County, California, USA
January 29, 2007
Size: 1.2 mm.
Copulating pair of miniature beetles(?). Caught with sweep net on coastal sage scrub (Artemisia californica, Salvia sp.) or a pepper tree.

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Thrips - Aeolothrips kuwanaii - male - female Thrips - Aeolothrips kuwanaii - male - female Thrips - Aeolothrips kuwanaii - male - female Thrips - Aeolothrips kuwanaii - male - female Thrips - Aeolothrips kuwanaii - male - female

Moved
Moved from Thrips.

Aeolothrips kuwanaii
Used this key of California thrips to ID to species, based primarily on antennae (3rd segment mostly yellow, #2 & #4 brown) and wings present in both adults with longitudinal dark band on fore wing. "Incomplete sub-basal transverse dark band" distinguishes it from the related A. crucifer and A. hartleyi. See here.

 
excellent --thanks

Not beetles!
This is a pair of thrips ("thrips" is both singular AND plural, as we are forced to explain every time thanks to the person who named them:-) Order is Thysanoptera.

 
Thanks!
That explains it! Beetles didn't quite fit (the wings didn't look right, and the shape was unusual for a miniature beetle), but having never studied thrips under a microscope, beetles seemed to be the closest fit.

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