Thysanoptera of the Galápagos Islands

Abstract

Thysanoptera from the Galápagos Islands were inventoried from 627 slide-mounted specimens that were made with material that had been stored at the Reference Collection of Terrestrial Invertebrates at the Charles Darwin Research Station, Galápagos, Ecuador. Museum material was complemented by field collections conducted over the period October – November 2009. This inventory was augmented from records in the published literature. Identification of museum and field-collected material added an additional 27 species to the already known fauna, an increase of 54%. A total of 77 species of thrips from 42 genera in four families is now known from 17 different islands in the Galápagos. At least nine species are serious pests, of which four, Frankliniella occidentalis, Gynaikothrips uzeli, Thrips palmi, and Thrips tabaci, are reported from the Galápagos Islands in the primary scientific literature for the first time.