Carcinothips: A genus of Acacia phyllode-glueing thrips with grossly enlarged fore legs (Thysanoptera : Phlaeothripidae)

Members of the Australian thrips genus Carcinothrips Moulton have the front legs modified into massive chelate structures, with elongate and expanded fore femora bearing a row of stout tubercles, and foreshortened fore tibiae that close onto these tubercles. Females of Carcinothrips leai, the only p reviously described species, and also of a new species, Carcinothrips tania , secrete a ring of glue from their anus to fix together pairs of Acacia ph yllodes. Adults and larvae live within the shallow cell so produced, and fe ed on the phyllode walls of their domicile.