Belongs within: Phlaeothripidae.
Sophiothrips are minute thrips found on dead twigs or leaf litter.
Characters (from Mound & Marullo 1996): Antennae with eight segments, segment III usually with two sense cones (occasionally one or sense cones absent); maxillary stylets exceptionally short, restricted to mouth cone; epimeral sutures completes, prosternal basantra small; fore tarsal claw large in male but smaller (rarely absent) in female; species strongly sexually dimorphic.
<==Sophiothrips Hood 1933 [incl. Bagnalliola, Nanimothrips, Nanothrips, Zaxenothrips]MM96 |--*S. squamosus Hood 1933MM96 |--S. bicolor Watson & Preer 1939MM96 |--S. comptus Hood 1956MM96 |--S. greensladeiMDT13 |--S. panamensis Hood 1933MM96 |--S. peculiaris (Crawford 1943) [=Zaxenothrips peculiaris]MM96 |--S. politus Hood 1956MM96 |--S. spadix Hood 1954MM96 |--S. unicolor Hood 1939MM96 |--S. verrucosus Hood 1956MM96 `--S. vorticosus Hood 1954MM96
*Type species of generic name indicated
References
[MDT13] Mound, L. A., L.-H. Dang & D. J. Tree. 2013. Genera of fungivorous Phlaeothripinae (Thysanoptera) from dead branches and leaf-litter in Australia. Zootaxa 3681 (3): 201–224.
[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.