First record of <i>Thrips hawaiiensis</i> (Morgan, 1913) (Thysanoptera: Thripidae) in mainland New Zealand using morphological and molecular techniques

This is the first record of an established colony of Thrips hawaiiensis (Thysanoptera: Thripidae) found on mainland New Zealand. The established population was discovered on gorse (Ulex europaeus) in Auckland, North Island. Thrips hawaiiensis is highly polyphagous and feeds and breeds in many ornamental flowers, fruit and vegetable plants including several of economic importance to New Zealand. The DNA sequences of the New Zealand specimens shared 92–99% identity with those of T. hawaiiensis in the BOLD database, indicating high intraspecific variation. The sequence analysis revealed three distinct sub-clades of T. hawaiensis, with the New Zealand specimens being in the same sub-clade as those from Australia. A comparison of COI sequences across nine congeneric species demonstrated that the COI sequence can be used to separate these species. http://zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:CF0F6AD1-D752-4FEE-8BA4-E9CCF8D3FDB4