• Contact Info
  • +61 3 9479 1672
  • Websites

Associate Professor Martin Steinbauer Associate Professor, Ecology, Environment & Evolution

Martin is Head of the Insect-Plant Interactions laboratory at La Trobe University. We study how insect herbivores find, assess and utilise plants based on their chemical and physical traits. These behaviours and adaptations determine the severity of damage that plants experience and the abundance of insect herbivores. Our broader conceptual frameworks encompass adult preference-neonate performance linkage theory, plant defence theory and co-evolution.

A core focus of the research is insect host specificity and utilisation of eucalypts (Eucalyptus, Corymbia and Angophora). The applications of the research are most relevant to forestry but also extend to biological control of weeds and pollination. Recent research has focused on psyllids (Hemiptera: Psylloidea) but other study systems have included major lepidopteran and coleopteran defoliators of eucalypts.

Positions

Research Areas research areas