Dr Laurence Mound.

Dr Laurence Mound: thrips expert

Dr Laurence Mound’s research on thrips biology allows rapid identification of pest species, and assists thrips biologists around the world.

• 22 December 2010 | Updated 14 October 2011

Overview

• Current activities
• Background
• Academic qualifications
• Achievements

Current activities

Dr Laurence Mound has carried out field studies widely across the Australian arid zone, but currently is placing greater emphasis on the eastern and northern coasts and the inter-relationships of the fauna of these areas with the fauna of Indonesia.

From these studies it appears that little more than 50 per cent of the Australian thrips fauna has been described, and the objective is to produce a major introductory text that will facilitate future studies by other workers. 

Dr Mound has recently made available through the CSIRO website a complete checklist to the 7 500 published names for thrips species from around the world.

This is part of an on-going information and advisory service that he provides to scientists working worldwide on many aspects of thrips biology.

Background

Dr Mound has more than 40 years experience studying thrips in many parts of the world.

His research in recent years has focused on:

• modern methods of identifying species, including publishing information and high quality digital photomicrographs on CD-ROMS
• host-plant exploitation studies, particularly on the plant genus Acacia
• studies on thrips as much neglected pollinators of various plants
• production and management of a world catalogue of Thysanoptera.

Academic qualifications

Dr Mound has been awarded a:

• Diploma of Tropical Agriculture
• Bachelor of Science with Honours in Zoology from the University of London, United Kingdom in 1957
• Doctor of Science from the University of London in 1975

Achievements

Dr Mound was appointed an Honorary Professor at the University of Wales, Cardiff, in 1990, and more recently has supervised students at:

• Australian National University, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory
• University of Adelaide, South Australia
• Flinders University, Adelaide, South Australia.

He has published, with Prof. Gerald Moritz of Halle, Germany, several CD-ROMS providing identification and information systems about thrips.

The first of these CD-ROMS was specifically for the Australian Quarantine and Inspection Service. The latest included a molecular system for recognising about 60 species, even as eggs or larvae.

In collaboration with Dr Mark Hoddle, University of California, USA, he published an account of the thrips of California that is fully available on the web at: Thrips of California [external link].

With the help of Dena Paris a website has been developed that provides links to many information resources relevant to the study of thrips, together with links to various thrips identification systems that have been prepared using LucID software, particularly of the Australian fauna: http://anic.ento.csiro.au/thrips/

Dr Mound also collaborated with Dr Irene Terry of the University of Utah, USA, in establishing that thrips are the specific pollinators of some Australian cycad species in the genus Macrozamia.

He has also collaborated with botanists at The University of Sydney, Australia, studying thrips pollinators in the eastern rainforests of Australia, and with North American botanists studying thrips pollination in Papua New Guinea and Central America.

As a result of Dr Mound's work, the number of described Thysanoptera species recorded in the Australian Faunal Directory has risen from 287 in 1970 to 740 in 2008.

Find out more about the Australian National Insect Collection.