Staff profile

Dr Martin Steinbauer

ARC Future Fellow

Faculty of Science, Technology and Engineering

School of Life Sciences
Department of Zoology

Biological Sciences Building 1, Room 347, Melbourne (Bundoora)

 

Qualifications

BAgrSci (Hons), PhD Tas., F.R.E.S.

Membership of professional Associations

Fellow Royal Entomological Society, International Society Chemical Ecology, Member Institute of Foresters Australia, Ecological Society of Australia, Australian & Queensland Entomological Societies

Area of study

Zoology

Brief Profile

 

Research Interests

Insect specificity for Australia’s unofficial floral emblem – the eucalypt

Eucalypts dominate the Australian landscape and provide food for tens of thousands of endemic insects. Despite this, we have very little detailed information about the mechanisms underlying insect-eucalypt interactions. I study insect responses to eucalypt cues (physical and chemical) to explain these interactions. I employ the female preference-offspring performance theoretical framework to place insect responses to their hosts into an evolutionary context. I am interested in determining whether similarities in eucalypt metabolites can explain the host ranges of different insects and the potential for acceptance of unfamiliar eucalypt species.

Population ecology of native insect herbivores

Plants differ in their suitability as food for insects and insects differ in the ways they acquire nutrients from plants. For the insect, these differences have important implications for the survival of offspring, the fecundity of adults and, ultimately, their population ecology. I document the quality of host plants as food for insects as well as fluctuations in their incidence and abundance. To relate insect responses to changes in host quality, I conduct manipulative experiments with live plants, plant parts and artificial media. I am interested in testing the applicability of the Plant Stress and Plant Vigour Hypotheses to Australian insect-plant interactions.

Life history strategies and basic entomology

Australia is estimated to have an insect fauna of some 140,000 species (Nielsen & West (1994), pp. 101-121. Systematics and Conservation Evaluation. Clarendon Press, Oxford). Since only the pest/threatened and charismatic species have been studied to any degree, there is a huge need to document the biologies of taxa of interest/concern to humans. I am interested in documenting morphological and phenotypic plasticity and explaining its causes.

 For more information visit the Insect Plant Interactions page

 

Teaching Units

 ZOO3EPA - Animal-Plant Interactions

Recent Publications

 

Chapuis MP, Popple JA, Simpson SJ, Deveson T, Spurgin P, Steinbauer MJ & Sword GA (2011) Challenges to assessing connectivity between massive populations of the Australian plague locust. Proceedings of the Royal Society B–Biological Sciences 278:3152-3160.

Paine TD, Steinbauer MJ & Lawson SA (2011) Native and exotic pests of Eucalyptus: a worldwide perspective. Annual Review of Entomology 56:181-201.

Steinbauer MJ (2010) Latitudinal trends in foliar oils of eucalypts: environmental correlates and diversity of chrysomelid leaf-beetles. Austral Ecology 35:205-214.

Steinbauer MJ, Davies NW, Gaertner C & Derridj S (2009) Epicuticular waxes and plant primary metabolites on the surfaces of juvenile Eucalyptus globulus and E. nitens (Myrtaceae) leaves. Australian Journal of Botany 57:474-485.

Calas D, Marion-Poll F & Steinbauer MJ (2009) Tarsal taste sensilla of the autumn gum moth, Mnesampela privata: morphology and electrophysiological activity. Entomologia Experimentalis et Applicata 133:186-192.

Östrand F, Wallis IR, Davies NW, Matsuki M & Steinbauer MJ (2008) Causes and consequences of host expansion by Mnesampela privata (Lepidoptera: Geometridae). Journal of Chemical Ecology 34:153-167.

Steinbauer MJ & Matsuki M (2004) Suitability of Eucalyptus and Corymbia for Mnesampela privata (Guenée) (Lepidoptera: Geometridae) larvae. Agricultural & Forest Entomology 6:323-332

Steinbauer MJ, Östrand F, Bellas TE, Nilsson A, Andersson F, Hedenström E, Lacey MJ & Schiestl FP (2004) Identification, synthesis and activity of sex pheromone gland components of the autumn gum moth (Lepidoptera: Geometridae), a defoliator of Eucalyptus. Chemoecology 14:217-223.

Steinbauer MJ, Schiestl FP & Davies NW (2004) Monoterpenes and epicuticular waxes help female autumn gum moth differentiate between waxy and glossy Eucalyptus and leaves of different ages. Journal of Chemical Ecology 30:1117-1142.

Steinbauer MJ, Clarke AR & Madden JL (1998) Oviposition preference of a Eucalyptus herbivore and the importance of leaf age on inter-specific host choice. Ecological Entomology 23:201-206.