Thrips are insect pests of economically important agricultural, horticultural, and forest

crops. They cause damage by sucking plant sap and by transmitting several tospoviruses, ilarviruses,

carmoviruses, sobemoviruses, and machlomoviruses. Accurate and timely identification is the key

to successful management of thrips species. However, their small size, cryptic nature, presence

of color and reproductive morphs, and intraspecies genetic variability make the identification of

thrips species challenging. The use of molecular and electronic detection platforms has made thrips

identification rapid, precise, sensitive, high throughput, and independent of developmental stages.

Multi-locus phylogeny based on mitochondrial, nuclear, and other markers has resolved ambiguities

in morphologically indistinguishable thrips species. Microsatellite, RFLP, RAPD, AFLP, and CAPS

markers have helped to explain population structure, gene flow, and intraspecies heterogeneity. Recent

techniques such as LAMP and RPA have been employed for sensitive and on-site identification of

thrips. Artificial neural networks and high throughput diagnostics facilitate automated identification.

This review also discusses the potential of pyrosequencing, microarrays, high throughput sequencing,

and electronic sensors in delimiting thrips species.