Belongs within: Phlaeothripidae.
Acanthothrips is a group of thrips (questionably distinct from Phlaeothrips) found as fungus-feeders on dead twigs, with the highest diversity in the New World (Mound & Marullo 1996).
Characters (from Mound & Marullo 1996): Antennal segments III and IV each with a distinct apical neck and three long sense cones, segments VII and VIII distinct; maxillary stylets very close medially in head; pronotum usually with complex, delicately reticulate sculpture; fore tibia without distinct tubercles on inner margin; abdominal tergites each with more than two pairs of wing-retaining setae.
<==Acanthothrips Uzel 1895 [incl. Notothrips Hood 1933]MM96 |--*A. nodicornis (Reuter 1885) (see below for synonymy)MM96 |--A. albivittatus Hood 1908MM96 |--A. ‘albovittatus’ (Schille 1912) (see below for synonymy)MM96 |--A. amoenus Hood 1949MM96 |--A. argentifer Cott 1956MM96 |--A. candidus Hood 1938MM96 |--A. folsomi (Hood 1933) [=Notothrips folsomi]MM96 |--A. grandis (Karny 1912) [=Hoplothrips grandis]MM96 |--A. itzanus Stannard 1957MM96 |--A. palmi Hood 1958MM96 |--A. perileucus Hood 1957MM96 |--A. priesneri Johansen 1979MM96 `--A. vittatus (Hood 1912) [=Phloeothrips vittatus, *Notothrips vittatus]MM96
Acanthothrips ‘albovittatus’ (Schille 1912) non A. albivittatus Hood 1908 [=Phloeothrips albovittatus, Notothrips albovittatus]MM96
*Acanthothrips nodicornis (Reuter 1885) [=Phloeothrips nodicornis; incl. A. americanus Bagnall 1933, A. doanei Moulton 1907, Machatothrips isshikii Ishida 1932]MM96
*Type species of generic name indicated
References
[MM96] Mound, L. A., & R. Marullo. 1996. The thrips of Central and South America: an introduction (Insecta: Thysanoptera). Memoirs on Entomology, International 6: 1–487.