[1][2][3][4] E. americanus was first described in 1913 by entomologist A.C. Morgan in Quincy, Florida, where he found the insect on a Veratrum viride plant (common name green false-hellebore).

"[8] Insects belonging to the order Thysanoptera were named thrips meaning "woodworm," by Carl Linnaeus.

E. americanus has been documented in the following countries: China, Indonesia, Japan, Taiwan, Thailand, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czechia, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland,[12] Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom, Bermuda, Canada, Guadeloupe, Mexico, Puerto Rico, and Australia.

[13] E. americanus has been recorded in 10 U.S. states (Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Maryland, Missouri, New York, Tennessee, and Virginia) as well as the District of Columbia.

[18] As a species in the order Thysanoptera, E. americanus are hemimetabolous insects, meaning they undergo incomplete metamorphosis and have three distinct life stages: egg, nymph, and adult (also called imago).

[19] The male clasps the females pterothorax (meso- and metathorax) with his legs, twisting his abdomen under hers, then inserts the aedeagus.

Copulation lasts about four minutes and requires that the antennae come into contact and that the females back is stroked with the males mesothoracic (hind) legs.

[14][8][17] Several behavioural and morphological characteristics of E. americanus make chemical control of the species difficult.

[11] Ghasemzadeh et al. (2017) investigated the potential of phytoseiid predatory mites as a means of biological control to combat E. americanus damage.

Predatory mites have not been documented to consume adult E. americanus, however, so more research into the biological control of this species is needed.