Entom. Often erron. taken as pl., with a false sing. thrip; the analogical Eng. pl. would be thripses. [L. thrips (Pliny), a. Gr. θρίψ, pl. θρῖπες a wood-worm.] a. The typical genus of the Thripsidæ or Thripidæ, the sole family of the order Thysanoptera (formerly called Physopoda), comprising minute insects with four fringed wings, many of which are injurious to various plants; an insect of this genus or family. b. Erroneously applied to any one of the Jassidæ, a hemipterous family of leaf-hoppers that feed on the grape-vine.
[1658. Rowland, Moufet’s Theat. Ins., 1082. Those [worms] that are bred in … dry wood are called Thripes.]
1795. Gentl. Mag., LXV. II. 629/1. The whole genus of thrips is a perfectly innocent animal.
1829. J. L. Knapp, Jrnl. Nat., 299. The wireworm destroys the root, the thrips the germ of the wheat.
1844. Darwin, in Life & Lett. (1887), II. 30. I have seen a microscopic Thrips and a Cecidomya take flight from a flower … with pollen adhering to them.
1851. B’ham & Midl. Gard. Mag., Aug., 139. If thrip be troublesome, fine muslin bags should be fastened over the buds.
1869. Rep. U.S. Comm. Agric., 217. What insects are most injurious to the vine?… Wisconsin: The thrips to a small extent.
1881. Eleanor A. Ormerod, Injur. Insects (1890), 97. The attack of Corn Thrips … often does a great deal of harm very quietly.
1892. E. P. Dixon, Seed Catalogue, 3. Sufficient moisture to keep the red spider and thrip at bay.
