Background
Lysaght was born in Mokoia, Taranaki, New Zealand on 14 April 1905 to Emily Muriel Lysaght née Stowe and Brian Cuthbert Lysaght.
Lysaght was born in Mokoia, Taranaki, New Zealand on 14 April 1905 to Emily Muriel Lysaght née Stowe and Brian Cuthbert Lysaght.
Lysaght was initially educated at home by a governess but was sent to Chilton House Private Girls Boarding School in Wellington when she was 12. In 1923 Lysaght began studying for a degree at Victoria University College, Wellington. While attending University, Lysaght joined the Victoria University tramping club and went on tramps with John Beaglehole, with whom she later collaborated on scholarly works.
While studying for her bachelor"s degree Lysaght published her first papers on entomology.
She graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in 1928 and obtained a Masters in Science in 1929. Her thesis was on the biology of Eucolaspis, a genus of beetle.
From 1927 to 1929 she was on the staff of the Cawthron Institute"s department of entomology and from 1931 to 1932 she was employed by Victoria University College as a temporary assistant in zoology.
Subsequent to this Lysaght moved to England to live and continued her education. Lysagh spent three years undertaking postgraduate research at the Rothamsted Experimental Station in London, after which she was awarded a Doctorate from the University of London in 1935.
Her doctorate thesis was on the nematode parasites of thrips.
During this time Lysaght undertook artistic training first at Nottingham School of Art and later at Street Martins School of Art in London.
When she was 15 she discovered on Mount Taranaki an owlet moth previously unknown to science. That species was described in 1921 by entomologist G. V. Hudson and named Graphania averilla in her honour. Lysaght died on the 21 August 1981 in London.
Porina oreas Leuconopsis obsoleta Pisidium novaezelandiae Potamopyrgus antipodarum".