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 <i>Thrips hawaiiensis</i> (Thysanoptera: Thripidae) found on mainland New Zealand. The established population was discovered on gorse (<i>Ulex europaeus</i>) in Auckland, North Island. <i>Thrips hawaiiensis</i> is highly polyphagous and feeds and breeds in many ornamental flowers, fruit and vegetable plants including several of economic importance to New Zealand<i>.</i> The DNA sequences of the New Zealand specimens shared 92–99% identity with those of <i>T. hawaiiensis</i> in the BOLD database, indicating high intraspecific variation. The sequence analysis revealed three distinct sub-clades of <i>T. hawaiensis</i>, 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