An illustrated key is provided to distinguish 13 genera of fungus-feeding thrips recorded from Iran in both subfamilies of Phlaeothripidae (Idolothripinae, Phlaeothripinae). Information is provided concerning 16 species recorded from this country. A curious new species of Stictothrips is described from both sexes collected from dead leaves in Fars province, southern Iran.

Mound and Palmer (1981) included the following eight genera in Megalurothrips genus-group: Ceratothrips, Ceratothripoides, Craspedothrips, Lefroyothrips, Megalurothrips, Odontothripiella, Odontothrips, and Projectothrips. However, a series of shared morphological characters, as well as their shared host-plant association with members of the plant family Fabaceae, indicates that Megalurothrips, Odontothrips, and Odontothripiella are particularly closely related (Xie et al. 2010). The species of these three genera all have a pair of dorso-apical setae on the first antennal segment, a character state that distinguishes them from most Thripinae (Zhang et al. 2018). Of these, Odontothrips is the most species-rich genus with 34 species distributed in the Palaearctic (ThripsWiki 2019). In Iran only 5 species (O. confusus, O. iranensis, O. loti, O. meliloti, O. phlomidinus) have been recorded (Minaei 2017). Despite more than 60 years since O. phlomidinus was described from Iran, this species remains known only from the type series (Priesner 1954). In this paper, a new species of the genus is described from southern Iran that seems to be close to O. phlomidinus. Moreover, a provisional key is provided, based on females, for six species recorded from Iran. Authority names are available on the web (ThripsWiki 2019).

Of the 16 species listed in the genus Liophloeothrips (ThripsWiki 2018), 13 are known only from India, and all of these are phytophagous with some inducing galls in various plant families (Tyagi & Kumar 2011). However, the biology of the type species, L. glaber, as well as that of the other two species, L. hungaricus and L. pulchrisetis, remains in doubt. Each of these three species is from Europe, with L. pulchrisetis known from a single female, L. glaber from two specimens, and hungaricus recorded from Hungary, Finland and Iran on a very few individuals (Minaei & Mound 2014). The record of L. hungaricus from Iran was published without any information concerning the locality, date of collection, or number of specimens (Mortazawiha 1995). However, Minaei and Mound (2014) pointed out that the slide label data of L. hungaricus specimens from Europe suggested that this species is associated with the bark of certain Salicaceae. Moreover, they indicated the possibility that the three names might actually represent a single species, although the male of L. glabrus has a sternal pore plate whereas this is apparently absent in hungaricus. Given the few known specimens, it is not possible to know if these thrips live under bark and feed on fungal hyphae, or if the few specimens collected were actually leaf-feeders that were sheltering under bark. In this paper, a new species of the genus is described from southern Iran, based on both sexes. These specimens were extracted from leaf litter using a Berlese funnel, thus again it is not possible to be certain if the species is part of the community of fungus-feeding litter thrips, or if the specimens were merely sheltering.

A BSTR ACT . The genus and species, Sinuothrips hasta Collins, was identified based on specimens of both sexes collected from Phragmites and an unkown species of Asteraceae in Fars province. This genus is known previously only from England, Turkey and China. A brief diagnostic characters for the genus and species is provided and illustrated.

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