Dr Aola Mary Richards (16 December 1927 – 2 November 2021) was a New Zealand entomologist specialising in the study of New Zealand and Australian cave crickets, or wētā (

Rhaphidophoridae The orthopteran family Rhaphidophoridae of the suborder Ensifera has a worldwide distribution. Common names for these insects include cave wētā, cave crickets, camelback crickets, camel crickets, Hogan bugs, spider crickets (sometimes shortene ...

), and Australian ladybird beetles (

Coccinellidae Coccinellidae () is a widespread family of small beetles ranging in size from . They are commonly known as ladybugs in North America and ladybirds in Great Britain. Some entomologists prefer the names ladybird beetles or lady beetles as they ...

). She was the first New Zealand woman to gain a PhD in biology.

Early life

Richards was born in

Wellington, New Zealand Wellington ( mi, Te Whanganui-a-Tara or ) is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the second-largest city in New Zealand by metr ...

. She was the only child of Hinemoa C C Hopkins, a lawyer, and David James Richard, a university mathematics professor from Wales. Richards' parents were married for only a few years before separating. Richards attended Queen Margaret's College then Samuel Marsden Collegiate School for Girls in Wellington. She gained First Class MSc in Zoology in 1954 from the

University of New Zealand The University of New Zealand was New Zealand's sole degree-granting university from 1874 to 1961. It was a collegiate university embracing several constituent institutions at various locations around New Zealand. After it was dissolved in 196 ...

. Richards was then awarded a New Zealand University research fund fellowship, and in 1958 she became the first woman in New Zealand to gain a PhD in biological science.

Career

Richards worked at the Plant Diseases Division of the New Zealand Department of Scientific and Industrial Research in Auckland before moving to Australia. She worked within the Biology Department of the

University of New South Wales The University of New South Wales (UNSW), also known as UNSW Sydney, is a public research university based in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It is one of the founding members of Group of Eight, a coalition of Australian research-intensive ...

for 33 years. Richards published more than 80 papers, many of them taxonomic revisions and species descriptions as the sole author. Her most cited works are on the life history and feeding biology of beetles and

wētā Wētā (also spelt weta) is the common name for a group of about 100 insect species in the families Anostostomatidae and Rhaphidophoridae endemic to New Zealand. They are giant flightless crickets, and some are among the heaviest insects in th ...

. Richards' PhD research initiated her love of caves and the fauna that lives in caves. This led to field work across Australia and Europe and involvement in speleological societies. Along with Ted Lane she was the founding editor of ''Helictite'', the newsletter of the

Australian Speleological Federation Formed in 1956, the Australian Speleological Federation Inc. (ASF) is the national body representing those interested in the protection and sustainability of Australia's cave and karst environments. It has approximately 850 members across 28 con ...

, providing a news service and collection of speleological papers. Richards inspired the study of the animals that live in caves in Tasmania and her species descriptions contributed to conservation efforts. Richards made a major contribution to the taxonomy of New Zealand and Australian

(cave crickets/

). She described five genera from New Zealand and more than twenty new species comprising almost all of the known Australian taxa. A cave wētā species was named for her in 2018, ''Miotopus richardsae''. In Australia, Richards also studied ladybird beetles. Her taxonomic work is highly cited and her studies of feeding biology revealed novel plant-insect interactions. Richards and her colleague Filewood were the first to describe how beetles can avoid toxic plant compounds by chewing through the leafstalk of their food plant. Referred to as "trench warfare", this behaviour allows ladybird beetles to isolate a region of the plant, preventing toxic plant compounds reaching them. Richards died in late 2021 at the age of 93.

Selected publications

* Richards, A. M. (1983).
The ''Epilachna vigintiotopunctata'' complex (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae)
" ''International Journal of Entomology'' . 25(1): 11–41. * Richards, A. M. (1981). ''"Rhyzobius ventralis'' (Erichson) and ''R. forestieri'' (Mulsant) (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae), their biology and value for scale insect control." ''Bulletin of Entomological Research''. 71(1): 33–46. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0007485300051002 * Richards, A. M. (1973). "A comparative study of the biology of the Giant wetas ''Deinacrida heteracantha'' and ''D. fallai'' (Orthoptera: Henicidae) from New Zealand." ''Journal of Zoology.'' 169(2): 195–236. * Richards A. M. (1971). "An ecological study of the cavernicolous fauna of the Nullarbor Plain Southern Australia." ''Journal of Zoology''. 164(1): 1–60.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Richards, Aola 1927 births 2021 deaths Scientists from Wellington City Women entomologists New Zealand expatriates in Australia 21st-century New Zealand women scientists University of New South Wales people 20th-century New Zealand women scientists University of New Zealand alumni New Zealand entomologists