Thrips Parvispinus

About Thrips Parvispinus: 

• It is an invasive pest species.
• It is a polyphagous pest, which can also grow and multiply on alternate hosts like drumstick, pigeon pea, chickpea, papaya, mango and weed species like Parthenium, Cleome viscosa, Prosopis sp., Lantana camera, Calotropis sp., Tecoma sp. and wild solanum plants.
• It has been reported from Thailand, Australia and Europe.
• The last two decades witnessed a drastic extension in the geographic distribution and it is now known to occur in France, Greece, Hawaii, Mauritius, Reunion, Spain, Tanzania and the Netherlands, besides India
• In India, this species was first reported on Papaya from Bengaluru in 2015.
• Thrips parvispinus adults mainly colonize on flowers and underside of leaves whereas larvae suck sap from undersurface of the leaves.
• Infestation causes heavy flower drop and thereby reduces fruit production.
• Its infestation increased during heavy rainfall of North East monsoon in contrast to other thrips species.

What are Thrips?

• Thrips are an important group of sucking pests which cause significant economic losses both as pests and vectors of serious plant viruses in several horticultural crops.
• There are reports on the outbreak of sucking pests like thrips in different regions due to changes in crop production patterns, pesticide usage and climate change. 

Q1:What is an Invasive Species?

An invasive species is an organism that is not indigenous, or native, to a particular area. Invasive species can cause great economic and environmental harm to the new area.

Source: Invasive thrips caused 80% damage to chilli crops, Rajya Sabha told