A new thrips pest of Myoporum cultivars in California, in a new genus of leaf-galling Australian Phlaeothripidae (Thysanoptera)

A new genus of Australian Phlaeothripidae is described, Klambothrips, to include a new species of gall-inducing thrips, K. myopori, that is a pest on the leaves of prostrate and upright Myoporum shrubs in California. A closely related thrips, Liothrips walsinghami Girault, is also included in this genus. This thrips is common in the coastal regions of south eastern Australia damaging the leaves of Myoporum insulare. Two further Australian thrips species are also placed in Klambothrips, both inducing leaf distortions on plants in the Asteraceae: Rhynchothrips annulosus Priesner on Cassinia, and Klambothrips oleariae sp. n. on Olearia. These thrips are all members of the “Teuchothrips complex”, and molecular data is presented indicating that the members of this complex constitute a series of separate lineages, one of which comprises the four species of Klambothrips.