Nigel Andrew

• PhD
• Professor at Southern Cross University

Research disciplines in science have historically developed in silos but are increasingly multidisciplinary. Here, we assessed how the insect ecology literature published in ecological and entomological journals has developed over the last 20 years and which topics have crossed discipline boundaries. We used structural topic modelling to assess res...

Following the introduction of cattle, exotic dung beetles (Coleoptera: Aphodiidae, Geotrupidae, Scarabaeidae) were imported into the Antipodes (Australia and New Zealand) and North America (primarily the United States) to accelerate the degradation of cattle dung on pastures. The history of dung beetle introductions between the two regions is simil...

We assessed the behavior and seed dispersal ability of two introduced dung rollers in Australia, Sisyphus rubrus (Paschaladis) and Sisyphus spinipes (Thunberg). For each species, we measured the linear distance (cm) from the source when rolling brood balls, the ability to disperse seeds, and the gender roles during reproduction in an indoor arena t...

Dung beetle introduction programmes were designed to accelerate exotic livestock dung degradation and to control dung breeding pestiferous flies and livestock parasites. The introduction programmes provided exotic dung beetle species with an opportunity to cross natural barriers and spread beyond their native range. There are no reports that explai...

Helicoverpa punctigera (native budworm) is an important pest species in crops across Australia. From the third instar onward, this species causes severe damage to crop plants: therefore, caterpillars need to be managed at an early stage of their development. In our experiment, we raised H. punctigera on an artificial diet, which included different...

Dung beetles are one of the most charismatic animal taxa. Their familiarity as ecosystem service providers is clear, but they also play a range of roles in a variety of different ecosystems worldwide. Here, we give an overview of the current state of dung beetle research and the changes in the prevalence of topics in a collated corpus of 4,145 peer...

Herbivore dung quality (physical and chemical parameters) varies between animal species and animal diet which is influenced by seasonal fluctuations and farm management practices. Subsequently, this influences the reproductive success of dung beetles. In Australian pasture systems, how the introduced dung beetle assemblage interacts in the field wi...

Fungi are among the most diverse and ecologically important kingdoms in life. However, the distributional ranges of fungi remain largely unknown as do the ecological mechanisms that shape their distributions1,2. To provide an integrated view of the spatial and seasonal dynamics of fungi, we implemented a globally distributed standardized aerial sam...

Novel methods for sampling and characterizing biodiversity hold great promise for re-evaluating patterns of life across the planet. The sampling of airborne spores with a cyclone sampler, and the sequencing of their DNA, have been suggested as an efficient and well-calibrated tool for surveying fungal diversity across various environments. Here we...

Since 1968, the Australian Dung Beetle Project has carried out field releases of 43 deliberately introduced dung beetle species for the biological control of livestock dung and dung‐breeding pests. Of these, 23 species are known to have become established. For most of these species, sufficient time has elapsed for population expansion to fill the e...

Background We studied the occurrence of two sympatric wallabies, the red-necked pademelon ( Thylogale thetis ) and the red-legged pademelon ( T. stigmatica ) in northeastern New South Wales, Australia in relation to structural habitat attributes. At our study site, both species inhabit closed forest environments and have overlapping distributions,...

The environment surrounding invertebrates can influence the physiology of larval offspring. Dung beetles provide several significant ecological functions, including dung breakdown, fly control and nutrient cycling. Cattle diet influences the chemical and physical constituents of dung, of which pH is considered critical. Few studies have assessed th...

Dung removal by macrofauna such as dung beetles is an important process for nutrient cycling in pasturelands. Intensification of farming practices generally reduces species and functional diversity of terrestrial invertebrates, which may negatively affect ecosystem services. Here, we investigate the effects of cattle-grazing intensification on dung...

Background The Black Soldier Fly larvae (BSFL) are a source of nutrients and bioactive compounds in broiler diets. Some components of the BSFL may serve as a prebiotic or may impact the intestinal microbiota of the broilers by other modes of action, which in turn can affect the health and performance of broilers. Here, we investigate the impact of...

Language barriers can impede the dissemination of research findings, restrict collaboration and exclude non‐English‐speaking researchers from the global scientific community. To overcome this challenge, we explore the potential of Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) text generators to assist non‐anglophone researchers in producing high‐quali...

Myrmecochory is a widespread mutualism between angiosperm plants and ants, where seed dispersal is facilitated by a nutrient-rich appendage known as the elaiosome. Some species of phasmids (Phasmatodea) have convergently evolved an appendage, the egg capitulum, that is analogous to the elaiosome. Research into ant-mediated dispersal of phasmid eggs...

Organisms naturally experience diurnal temperature fluctuations and variable extreme environmental events rather than only static thermal regimes. Therefore, experimental studies that use only static mean daily, monthly or yearly temperatures overlook the possible influence of diurnal temperature fluctuations. Exposure to fluctuating temperatures e...

Cattle diet plays a crucial role in the quality of dung and the consequent reproductive capacity of dung beetles. We investigated how three pasture types (improved native, forage oat and inter‐sown rye/clover) influence the dung quality, the number of broods and reproductive output measured as brood size (dry weight and ellipsoid volume), developme...

Traits are key for understanding the environmental responses and ecological roles of organisms. Trait approaches to functional ecology are well established for plants, whereas consistent frameworks for animal groups are less developed. Here we suggest a framework for the study of the functional ecology of animals from a trait‐based response–effect...

Urbanization transforms environments in ways that alter biological evolution. We examined whether urban environmental change drives parallel evolution by sampling 110,019 white clover plants from 6169 populations in 160 cities globally. Plants were assayed for a Mendelian antiherbivore defense that also affects tolerance to abiotic stressors. Urban...

Urbanization transforms environments in ways that alter biological evolution. We examined whether urban environmental change drives parallel evolution by sampling 110,019 white clover plants from 6169 populations in 160 cities globally. Plants were assayed for a Mendelian antiherbivore defense that also affects tolerance to abiotic stressors. Urban...

Temporal partitioning between ecologically similar species facilitates co-occurrence and can influence the structure of mammalian assemblages. We studied diel activity patterns of two sympatric forest-dwelling wallabies, the red-legged pademelon (Thylogale stigmatica) and red-necked pademelon (Thylogale thetis) in eastern Australia to better unders...

Macrocyclic lactones (MLs) are some of the most pervasive chemicals used in cattle management to control internal parasites. However, the drenches can have a range of lethal and sublethal impacts, potentially impacting the efficiency of adult dung beetles at burying dung and negatively impacting their larval growth, development and survival. Here,...

Temperature is a crucial driver of insect activity and physiological processes throughout their life-history, and heat stress may impact life stages (larvae, pupae and adult) in different ways. Using thermolimit respirometry, we assessed the critical thermal maxima (CT max -temperature at which an organism loses neuromuscular control), CO 2 emissio...

The native budworm, Helicoverpa punctigera (Wallengren), is an important economic insect pest of cotton and other crops. It is widely distributed in Australia and has been recorded on a range of host plants including native, non-crop hosts in inland regions. To date, there are few records of its occurrence on plants with the C4 photosynthetic pathw...

Understanding the impact that heat stress has on critical life stages of an organism is essential when assessing population responses to extreme events. Heat stress may occur as repeated small-scale events or as a single prolonged event, which may cause different outcomes to the organism. Here, we subjected Helicoverpa punctigera (Wallengren) pupae...

1. Both larval and adult dung beetles depend on dung resources for nutrition. The quality of the dung resources utilised by beetles can influence adult morphology, adult biomass, and life history parameters of dung beetles. Although several studies have compared dung nutrients of different vertebrate dung types, variation in dung nutrients over tim...

Helicoverpa punctigera (Wallengren) larvae have been recorded on native non-crop hosts in the inland regions of Australia. However, there are few records of their survival on these non-crop hosts, especially on plants with the C4 photosynthetic pathway. We investigated larval survival on four C4 plant species (Atriplex numularia Lindl. Atriplex ves...

On the Northern Tablelands of New South Wales, Australia, endemic Theileria orientalis infection of cattle has been reported on farms where no ticks have been observed, raising the question of how Theileria is transmitted in these areas. To investigate the potential role of mechanical transmission by insects, the present study investigated the seas...

Non-conventional feed ingredients are receiving more interest in their ability to increase farming efficiency, sustainability and animal performance. The objective of this study was to determine the optimal rate of inclusion level of the full-fat Black Soldier Fly larvae (BSFL) in broiler diets and to evaluate their impact on performance, nutrient...

We evaluated the effects of full-fat black soldier fly larvae (BSFL) on broiler carcass composition, cut yield, and breast meat quality. Broilers were fed for 42 days with up to 20% dietary inclusion of BSFL (0, 5, 10, 15, and 20%). On day 42, 120 broilers were slaughtered, and images were taken using computed tomography. Breasts, drumsticks, and t...

Bovine theileriosis, caused by the Theileria orientalis complex, causes a mild persistent infection with the severity dependent on the infecting genotype and host exposure status. Clinical theileriosis was first detected on the Northern Tablelands of NSW in 2009 and a high prevalence of infection in cattle reported in 2013. However, the parasite wa...

The Ecological Society of Australia was founded in 1959, and the society’s journal was first published in 1976. To examine how research published in the society’s journal has changed over this time, we used text mining to quantify themes and trends in the body of work published by the Australian Journal of Ecology and Austral Ecology from 1976 to 2...

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper.

Dung beetles provide economically valuable ecosystem services to agriculture. Dung beetles are also sensitive to climate change, which may impact on the services that they provide. Using climate‐controlled chambers, we investigated the potential effects of climate change on the performance of a tunnelling dung beetle, Onthophagus taurus. Over two t...

Among tick transmitted diseases, infections with haemoprotozoan parasite, theileria is an economically important disease of cattle in tropical and sub-tropical countries with Theileria parva and Theileria annulata being the most pathogenic species. Although Theileria orientalis is known to cause persistent infections with mild signs, in recent y...

The kingdom Fungi is a megadiverse group represented in all ecosystem types. The global diversity and distribution of fungal taxa are poorly known, in part due to the limitations related to traditional fruit-body survey methods. These previous hurdles are now being overcome by rapidly developing DNA-based surveys. Past fungal DNA surveys have predo...

Detector dogs could be trained to find invasive insect pests at borders before they establish in new areas. However, without access to the live insects themselves, odour training aids are needed to condition dogs to their scent. This proof-of-concept study assessed two potential training aids for insect detection: a scent extract and dead specimens...

The use of functional information in the form of species traits plays an important role in explaining biodiversity patterns and responses to environmental changes. Although relationships between species composition, their traits, and the environment have been extensively studied on a case-by-case basis, results are variable, and it remains unclear...

Honeybees Apis mellifera (European honeybee) and Apis cerana (Asian honeybee) are cosmopolitan, having colonized continents beyond their natural ranges. In tropical Australia, these alien species have recently become sympatric. The environmental and economic impacts of these species when in sympatry remain to be seen; however, any interspecific com...

Access to balanced nutrition enables optimum health and development, body repair, fat storage, increased fecundity and longevity. In the present study, we assessed the responses of a generalist leaf feeder (the phasmid Extatosoma tiaratum) reared continuously on one of three host plants, tree lucerne (Chamaecyisus palmensis), bramble (Rubus frutico...

Global meat consumption per capita is expected to increase ~40% from 2019 to 2050. Over 30% of the total cropland worldwide is currently being used to produce either livestock and poultry feed or silage to meet the demand. One solution to reduce cropland use for animal feed is to increase the production of alternative protein sources. The primary p...

Global meat consumption per capita is expected to increase ~40% from 2019 to 2050. Over 30% of the total cropland worldwide is currently being used to produce either livestock and poultry feed or silage to meet the demand. One solution to reduce cropland use for animal feed is to increase the production of alternative protein sources. The primary p...

Incidence, or compositional, matrices are generated for a broad range of research applications in biology. Zeta diversity provides a common currency and conceptual framework that links incidence‐based metrics with multiple patterns of interest in biology, ecology, and biodiversity science. It quantifies the variation in species (or OTU) composition...

Theileriosis is an economically important tick-borne disease of cattle in tropical and sub-tropical countries with Theileria parva and Theileria annulata being the most pathogenic species. Although Theileria orientalis is known to cause persistent infections with mild signs, in recent years there has been an increase in severe clinical outbrea...

Field studies of myrmecochory (seed dispersal by ants) can benefit from the use of devitalised seeds, particularly where these studies may involve invasive plants or plants outside of their natural range. Here, we test three different methods of seed devitalisation – gamma irradiation (10.6 kGy over 9.1 h at 23.7–25.4 °C), heating (150 °C for 30 mi...

BACKGROUND Ommatissus lybicus de Bergevin (Hemiptera: Tropiduchidae) (Dubas Bug, DB) is an insect pest attacking date palms. It occurs in Arab countries including Oman. In this paper, the logistic, ordinary least square, and geographical weighted regressions were applied to model the absence/presence and density of DB against climate factors. A met...

A number of sites contaminated by petroleum hydrocarbons from past fuel spills are currently undergoing remediation on subantarctic Macquarie Island. To assess the environmental risks these pose, and to establish remediation targets and guideline values, toxicity data for a range of native biota are required. The availability of data for local biot...

To preserve insect‐mediated ecosystem services under ongoing climate change, it is necessary to first understand the impact that warming will have on the insects that provide or mediate these services. Furthermore, because responses of a species may be modified by interactions with competitors, it is informative to examine warming effects on organi...

Understanding the physiological tolerances of ectotherms, such as thermal limits, is important in predicting biotic responses to climate change. However, it is even more important to examine these impacts alongside those from other landscape changes: such as the reduction of native vegetation cover, landscape fragmentation and changes in land use i...

Dung beetles are well known in Australia for controlling bush flies and livestock parasites along with efficient dung burial. To assess dung beetle assemblages along an altitudinal gradient, a seasonal dung beetle monitoring program was conducted in native and improved grassed paddocks at eight different locations along elevation gradients from 385...

1. Insects are sensitive to climate change. Consequently, insect‐mediated ecosystem functions and services may be altered by changing climates. 2. Dung beetles provide multiple services by burying manure. Using climate‐controlled chambers, the effects of warming on dung burial and reproduction by the dung beetle Sisyphus rubrus Paschalidis, 1974 we...

The effects of anthropogenic climate change on biodiversity are well known for some high‐profile Australian marine systems, including coral bleaching and kelp forest devastation. Less well‐published are the impacts of climate change being observed in terrestrial ecosystems, although ecological models have predicted substantial changes are likely. D...

In the version of this Perspective originally published, affiliations 1 and 4 ware incorrect, and should have read: “¹Antarctic Climate & Ecosystems CRC, University of Tasmania, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia” and “⁴Centre for Water, Climate and Land (CWCL), University of Newcastle, Callaghan, NSW, Australia”. These have been corrected in the online v...

The Dubas bug (Ommatissus lybicus de Bergevin) is a pest species whose entire life cycle occurs on date palms, Phoenix dactylifera L, causing serious damage and reducing date palm growth and yield. Pseudoligosita babylonica Viggiani, Aprostocetus nr. Beatus, and Bocchus hyalinus Olmi are very important parasitic natural enemies of Ommatissus lybicu...

The interaction of gradual climate trends and extreme weather events since the turn of the century has triggered complex and, in some cases, catastrophic ecological responses around the world. We illustrate this using Australian examples within a press-pulse framework. Despite the Australian biota being adapted to high natural climate variability,...

Thermal stress is a key issue for species dominant within ecosystems especially those that carry out key ecosystem service roles. When assessing the impacts of climate change it is critical to assess its biotic impacts relative to other anthropogenic changes to landscapes including the reduction of native vegetation cover, landscape fragmentation a...

Thermal stress is a key issue for species dominant within ecosystems especially those that carry out key ecosystem service roles. When assessing the impacts of climate change it is critical to assess its biotic impacts relative to other anthropogenic changes to landscapes including the reduction of native vegetation cover, landscape fragmentation a...

Ground temperatures can significantly influence the behaviour and activity patterns of small ectothermic and regional heterothermic species. This is critical to consider in light of a rapidly changing macroclimate, as shifts in behaviours such as foraging and aggression levels will also have more extreme impacts at smaller spatial scales. Here we a...

Zeta diversity provides the average number of shared species across n sites (or shared operational taxonomic units (OTUs) across n cases). It quantifies the variation in species composition of multiple assemblages in space and time to capture the contribution of the full suite of narrow, intermediate and wide-ranging species to biotic heterogeneity...

In order to understand the distribution and prevalence of Ommatissus lybicus (Hemiptera: Tropiduchidae) as well as analyse their current biographical patterns and predict their future spread, comprehensive and detailed information on the environmental, climatic, and agricultural practices are essential. The spatial analytical techniques such as Rem...

In this chapter, we assess the current knowledge of the impact that climate change is having on pest management. In particular, we assess biologically based methods, such as Integrated Pest Management (IPM), with key focuses on the ecological, physiological and behavioural responses of organisms. We address six key areas: (1) the different types of...

Date palm cultivation is economically important in the Sultanate of Oman, with significant financial investment coming from both the government and from private individuals. However, a global infestation of Dubas bug (Ommatissus lybicus Bergevin) has impacted the Middle East region, and infestations of date palms have been widespread. In this study...

Local Moran’s I statictic, A spatial analyset results. (PDF)

Hotspot analysis (Getis-Ord Gi*). (PDF)

Name of locations and geographic coordinates for the data set. (PDF)

Risky in the tropics It is well known that diversity increases toward the tropics. Whether this increase translates into differences in interaction rates among species, however, remains unclear. To simplify the problem, Roslin et al. tested for predation rates by using a single approach involving model caterpillars across six continents. Predator a...

The aim of this paper is to demonstrate how Geographical Information System (GIS) can be used effectively to study infestations of Dubas bug (DB), Ommatissus lybicus Bergevin, in date palm (Phoenix dactylifera L.) that occurred in northern Oman during 2006–2015. The ability to produce geographical and spatiotemporal layers using GIS is expected to...

Date palm cultivation is economically important in the Sultanate of Oman, with significant financial investments coming from both the government and private individuals. However, a widespread Dubas bug (DB) (Ommatissus lybicus Bergevin) infestation has impacted regions including the Middle East, North Africa, Southeast Russia, and Spain, resulting...

Blank survey. (PDF)

In order to understand the distribution and prevalence of Ommatissus lybicus (Homoptera: Tropiduchidae) as well as analyse their current biographical patterns and predict their future spread, comprehensive and highly sophisticated information on the environmental, climatic, and agricultural practices are essential. The analytical techniques availab...

In order to understand the distribution and prevalence of Ommatissus lybicus (Homoptera: Tropiduchidae) as well as analyse their current biographical patterns and predict their future spread, comprehensive and highly sophisticated information on the environmental, climatic, and agricultural practices are essential. The analytical techniques availab...

In order to understand the distribution and prevalence of Ommatissus lybicus (Homoptera: Tropiduchidae) as well as analyse their current biographical patterns and predict their future spread, comprehensive and highly sophisticated information on the environmental, climatic, and agricultural practices are essential. The analytical techniques availab...

Context We address the issue of adapting landscapes for improved insect biodiversity conservation in a changing climate by assessing the importance of additive (main) and synergistic (interaction) effects of land cover and land use with climate. Objectives We test the hypotheses that ant richness (species and genus), abundance and diversity would...

This chapter identifies the way climate change responses that have been carried out to date with an emphasis on transplant experiments including: adaptation to a warmer climate; potential of range shifts; changes in phenology; shifts in species interactions; disentangling genotypic and phenotypic responses; and shifts in communities. Transplant exp...

The study of environmental stress tolerance in aphids has primarily been at low temperatures. In these cases, and in the rare cases of high temperature tolerance assessments, all exposures had been during a single stress event. In the present study, we examined the physiological consequences of repeated high temperature exposure with recovery perio...

An increase in temperature as a result of anthropogenic climate change is likely to have a significant impact on ground foraging ants, with species closer to the tropics thought to be at greater risk. However, the use of broad scale climate data rather than data from the microclimates ants inhabit brings into question these estimates. This study as...

Littoral talitrid amphipods that traverse the intertidal zone have been the subject of many behavioural tests. These tests have emphasised the orientation cues required for the maintenance of these talitrids along specific zones on the land-sea axis (y-axis) of the littoral zone. Comparatively, little is known of the orientation cues required by am...

Littoral talitrid amphipods in the Northern Hemisphere and equatorial regions use a variety of cues to orient along the y-axis (land-sea axis) of the intertidal zone. Little is known as to whether similar cues are used in Southern Hemisphere taxa. The response to three cues commonly used in littoral amphipods was tested for in the Australian intert...

The cabbage aphid Brevicoryne brassicae L. (Hemiptera: Aphididae) is one of the most abundant canola pest insects, causing economic damage to flowering and podding crops. Cabbage aphid performance (abundance, fecundity, development, longevity and generation time) in canola, juncea canola, and canola-mustard was studied under glasshouse conditions....

Laboratory studies were conducted to assess impacts of temperature and humidity regimes on the development of Nezara viridula(L.) (Hemiptera: Pentatomidae) from inland and coastal populations in NSW, Australia. Four temperature regimes, 25±2ºC, 30±2ºC, 33±2ºC, and 36±2ºC and two humidity regimes, 40±10% and 80±10% RH were applied in the experiment...

Australia and New Zealand are home to a remarkable and unique assemblage of flora and fauna. Sadly though, by virtue of their long isolation, and a naïve and vulnerable biota, both countries have suffered substantial losses to biodiversity since European contact. Bringing together the contributions of leading conservation biologists, Austral Ark pr...

Identifying the factor causing species decline from a multitude of potential disturbances is essential for successful management. Invasive species are often drivers of decline, either through direct effects such as recruitment limitation, or through indirect effects such as habitat modification that facilitate biota changes in other taxa. In this s...

For speciose, but poorly known groups, such as terrestrial arthropods, functional traits present a potential avenue to assist in predicting responses to environmental change. Species turnover is common along environmental gradients, but it is unclear how this is reflected in species traits. Community-level change in arthropod traits, other than bod...

A functional traits-based theory of organismal communities is critical for understanding the principles underlying community assembly, and predicting responses to environmental change. This is particularly true for terrestrial arthropods, of which only 20 % are described. Using epigaeic ant assemblages, we asked: (1) can we use morphological variat...

An important problem encountered by ecologists in species distribution modelling ( SDM ) and in multivariate analysis is that of understanding why environmental responses differ across species, and how differences are mediated by functional traits. We describe a simple, generic approach to this problem – the core idea being to fit a predictive mode...

Species traits may provide a short-cut to predicting generalities in species turnover in response to environmental change, particularly for poorly known taxa. We ask if morphological traits of assemblages respond predictably to macrohabitats across a large scale. Ant assemblages were collected at nine paired pasture and remnant sites from within th...