{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,3,27]],"date-time":"2026-03-27T20:41:50Z","timestamp":1774644110228,"version":"3.50.1"},"reference-count":37,"publisher":"Frontiers Media SA","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2025,3,6]],"date-time":"2025-03-06T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1741219200000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["frontiersin.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Front. Insect Sci."],"abstract":"<jats:p>This study use landmark based geometric morphometrics (GM) of the head and the thorax on eight species of thrips of the species-rich genus <jats:italic>Thrips<\/jats:italic>. Among the selected species, four were classified as common and not significant, while four were identified as quarantine-significant and agriculturally important in the USA. The results indicate the potential for using both sets of landmarks, which, in some cases, were complementary. When one set did not reveal significant differences in shape, the other provided valuable insights. The geometric morphometric analysis of the selected landmarks revealed statistically significant differences in head morphology and the configuration of setal insertion points on the mesothorax and metathorax. Principal component analysis (PCA) served as the primary method to examine the ordinal distribution of the eight species within the morphospace. The analysis highlighted <jats:italic>T. australis<\/jats:italic> and <jats:italic>T. angusticeps<\/jats:italic> as the most morphologically distinct species in terms of head shape, while <jats:italic>T. nigropilosus<\/jats:italic>, <jats:italic>T. obscuratus<\/jats:italic>, and <jats:italic>T. hawaiiensis<\/jats:italic> exhibited the greatest divergence in thoracic morphology. The results further demonstrate the potential of geometric morphometric (GM) methods for identifying taxa that are challenging to distinguish using traditional taxonomy based on external morphology. This is particularly relevant for morphologically conservative taxa, such as thrips with minimal or no wing venation (a feature often used in GM studies of winged insects), species complexes (e.g., <jats:italic>T. hawaiiensis<\/jats:italic> and related species examined in this study), and taxa exhibiting morphological similarity due to convergent evolution associated with shared ecological niches.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3389\/finsc.2025.1558242","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2025,3,6]],"date-time":"2025-03-06T06:53:38Z","timestamp":1741244018000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":3,"title":["Unlocking species identity: geometric morphometrics of head and thorax shapes in invasive and non-invasive quarantine-significant thrips (Thysanoptera: Terebrantia)"],"prefix":"10.3389","volume":"5","author":[{"given":"Allan H.","family":"Smith-Pardo","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Laura M.","family":"P\u00e9rez","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Hugo A.","family":"Ben\u00edtez","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1965","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2025,3,6]]},"reference":[{"key":"B1","article-title":"So many thrips-so few tospoviruses","volume-title":"Thrips and tospoviruses: proceedings of the 7th international symposium on thysanoptera","author":"Mound","year":"2002"},{"key":"B2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"2","DOI":"10.11646\/megataxa.6.1.2","article-title":"All genera of the world: order Thysanoptera (Animalia: Arthropoda: Insecta)","volume":"6","author":"Mound","year":"2021","journal-title":"Megataxa"},{"key":"B3","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1071\/IS19001","article-title":"Morphological phylogeny of thripidae (Thysanoptera: terebrantia)","volume":"33","author":"Zhang","year":"2019","journal-title":"Invertebrate Systematics"},{"key":"B4","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1","DOI":"10.11646\/zootaxa.3678.1.1","article-title":"Review of the genus Thrips and related genera (Thysanoptera, Thripidae) from Japan","volume":"3678","author":"Masumoto","year":"2013","journal-title":"Zootaxa"},{"key":"B5","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1","DOI":"10.11646\/zootaxa.1082.1.1","article-title":"Trichromothrips Priesner (Thysanoptera, Thripidae) of Japan and Taiwan, with descriptions of four new species and a review of the Trichromothrips group of genera","volume":"1082","author":"Masumoto","year":"2005","journal-title":"Zootaxa"},{"key":"B6","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1","DOI":"10.11646\/zootaxa.1261.1.1","article-title":"A revision of and key to the world species of Mycterothrips Trybom (Thysanoptera, Thripidae)","volume":"1261","author":"Masumoto","year":"2006","journal-title":"Zootaxa"},{"key":"B7","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1","DOI":"10.11646\/zootaxa.1552.1.1","article-title":"The genus Scirtothrips Shull (Insecta, Thysanoptera, Thripidae) and three related genera in Japan","volume":"1552","author":"Masumoto","year":"2007","journal-title":"Zootaxa"},{"key":"B8","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1016\/S1671-2927(11)60073-4","article-title":"Thrips: pests of concern to China and the United States","volume":"10","author":"Stuart","year":"2011","journal-title":"Agric Sci China"},{"key":"B9","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.4289\/0013-8797-111.1.215","article-title":"Commonly intercepted thrips at US ports-of-entry from Africa, Europe, and the Mediterranean. 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