About 5500 species of thrips are currently recognised worldwide, with the greatest diversity being found in the warmer and tropical parts of the world, and the number of species in colder regions being very restricted. However, the thrips fauna of temperate regions has been studied far more intensively than that of tropical countries, with the fauna of the Afrotropical Region being particularly poorly known. A list of taxonomic faunal works from around the world is given in ThripsID (Moritz, Morris & Mound, 2001).
The species of Thysanoptera are classified into about 750 genera and 9 families (Mound & Morris, 2003). Of these, the suborder Terebrantia comprises 8 families including the Thripidae, whereas the suborder Tubulifera comprises the single family Phlaeothripidae. The present classification of the Thysanoptera, at all levels, has a weak phylogenetic basis (Morris & Mound, 2003). Particularly problematic is the fact that about 50% of recognised genera each includes only a single species, the available supra-generic classification is not effective, and many taxa are based on the presence of unusual autapomorphic character states (Mound & Morris, 2003).

Suborders