A new thrips pest of Myoporum cultivars in California, in a new genus of leaf-galling Australian Phlaeothripidae (Thysanoptera) Mound, Laurence A. Morris, David C. Zootaxa 2007 1495 35 45 622VS [151,325,1909,1935] Insecta GBIF Animalia Thysanoptera 1 36 Arthropoda order  One pest phlaeothripid, the Cuban laurel thrips,  Gynaikothrips ficorum(Marchal), is well known around the world inducing leaf-galls on cultivated  Ficus microcarpa(Mound et al., 1996; Boyd & Held, 2006). In south eastern Asia,  Piperspecies, both wild and cultivated, often exhibit leaf-curl damage due to  Liothrips piperinusPriesnerand related species ( Ananthakrishnan & Raman, 1989). Similarly,  Liothrips vaneeckeiPriesneris widespread as a minorpest on lily bulbs ( Malipatil et al., 2002), and  Liothrips adisizur Strassen damages the leaves of  Paullinia cupana, the Brazilian tree from which the drink Guarana is produced (zur Strassen, 1978). In Japan, the cruciferous spice plant,  Wasabia japonica, is damaged by  Liothrips wasabiaeHaga & Okajima, and the leaves of persimmon (  Diospyros kaki) are galled by  Ponticulothrips diospyrosiHaga & Okajima (Okajima, 2006). With so few pest species recorded amongst the Phlaeothripidae, the societal impact of this widespread family of thrips is limited, despite the large numbers of species and their intrinsically interesting biologies, including sub-sociality ( Crespi, 1990), eusociality ( Crespi et al., 2004), and striking structural polymorphisms ( Mound, 2005b).