This project will increase the knowledge of the biological diversity of thrips (Class Insecta; Order Thysanoptera) in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. During 2004 I worked on samples of thrips from the Park, but these were mainly from leaf-litter and involved little information on host plant relationships. In this new project, samples will be taken directly from flowers and leaves, and thus establish host associations including the level of host specificity. Information of thrips in this area is widely scattered, and this project will facilitate identification of thrips and provide a base line for biological and biodiversity studies.

The goals of the project are to generate an annotated check-list of thrips species and genera found in the Park, with all the taxa referenced, to describe any new taxa in the samples, and to prepare a general introduction to the thrips fauna of the Park.

Species Report: Arturosmokiethrips_SpeciesList.pdf

Principal Investigator

PI Name:  Dr. Arturo Goldarazena

PI Organization:  Departamento de Producción y Protección Vegetal, Spain

Co-investigator #1

Co-PI Name:  Dr. Laurence Mound

Co-PI Organization:  CSIRO Department of Entomology, Australia