Born: 16 December 1927, New Zealand
Died: 2 November 2021
Country most active: Australia
Also known as: NA
This biography has been shared from The Encyclopedia of Australian Science and Innovation, published by the Centre for Transformative Innovation, Swinburne University of Technology, under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Aola Richards was an renowned entomologist much of whose research was on the taxonomy of cave crickets (Rhaphidophoridae) of Australia and New Zealand. An expert on these insects (known as wētā), she described five new genera from New Zealand and over 20 species from Australia. She is reputed to have described almost all the Australian species. Her other main field of research was on Australian ladybird beetles (Coccinellidae). Richards and her colleague L. W. Filewood were the first to note how these beetles could avoid plant toxins by chewing through the leafstalk of their food plan. Her published output comprised more that 80 papers, the most cited being on wētā and the feeding behaviour of beetles. Richards was a keen speleologist. With Ted Lane, she was the founding editor of Helictite, the newsletter of the Australian Speleological Federation. For over 30 years she lectured in entomology in the Biology Department of the University of New South Wales. On retiring in 1993, she donated her collections to the Australian National Insect Collection. Disappointed that the teaching of entomology ceased at the University after her retirement she made significant bequests to this University and the Victoria University of Wellington to support postgraduate and postdoctoral entomological research.
Chronology
1954
Education – MSc in zoology (hons), Victoria University of Wellington
1958
Education – PhD, Victoria University of Wellington
1959 – 1960?
Career position – Entomologist, Plant Diseases Division, Department of Scientific and Industrial Research in Auckland
1961? – 1993
Career position – Lectured in entomology, Biology Department, University of New South Wales
1993
Life event – Retired
1993 – 1994
Career position – Honorary researcher, University of New South Wales