Thysanoptera of Lamington National Park, Australia, collected during the IBISCA-Queensland Project

Abstract

We documented species of thrips (Thysanoptera) collected during the IBISCA-Queensland Project, an altitudinal study in subtropical rainforest at Lamington National Park, Queensland, Australia. Thrips were identified from samples collected by four methods, leaf litter extracts, Malaise traps, flight interception traps and yellow pan traps, conducted at four plots at each of five altitudinal zones (300, 500, 700, 900 and 1100 metres above sea level) in October 2006 and January and March 2007. A total of 61 thrips species from three families were recorded from these samples. An additional 20 species were recorded from Lamington National Park by targeted collecting for thrips, mostly beating live and dead foliage and branches, bringing the total thrips fauna to 81 species. Biogeographically, the most interesting record was a new species breeding in the flowers of Pentaceras australis , Cranothrips ibisca, the only eastern species in a western and arid zone genus.