The disease caused by the viruses belonging to the genus Tospovirus is a serious problem in horticultural and ornamental crops in Brazil. In the field, this virus group is transmitted by the insect vector, thrips. Little is known about the thrips species occurring in Brazil, and which species are important for the dissemination of these diseases. For the study of epidemiology of this virus group, different thrips populations, which may have the capacity to be vectors of tospoviruses, were collected in the Federal District. Four species were identified: Frankliniella occidentalis Pergande, F. schultzei Trybom, Thrips palmi Karny and T. tabaci Lindeman. This is the first report of the occurrence of F. occidentalis and T. palmi in the Federal District. A methodology for the rearing of these four thrips is described in this report.
Insecta; Thysanoptera; spotted wilt; TSWV; western flower thrips