BIO 2310 - Ecology and Evolution

BIO 3150 - Invertebrate Zoology

BIO 4060/6060 - Evolutionary Biology

BIO 4700/6700 - General Entomology

BIO 4920/8000 - Senior/graduate seminars (including Field Ecology and Natural History)

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I have broad interests in ecology and evolutionary biology and in uniting these fields to study how biological diversity is organized into communities and how it has developed over evolutionary time.  My research interests span such topics as plant-insect and tri-trophic interactions, the processes of population differentiation and speciation, phylogenetic systematics, and the structure of ecological communities. My focus is primarily on insects, which, due to their immense taxonomic and ecological diversity, offer countless opportunities to examine a wide range of ecological and evolutionary questions.

I have combined approaches from a variety of fields in my studies of insect herbivores and parasitoids and their interactions. Most of this work revolves around understanding how tritrophic interactions shape the ecological niches of plant-feeding insects and how these interactions facilitate population divergence, speciation, and adaptive radiation. I have also focused on insect herbivores and parasite communities as indicators of ecological health in examining the effects of habitat fragmentation and invasive species on their diversity and abundance. I addition, I hold a deep interest in the basic task of documenting and understanding insect biodiversity. The approaches and tools I employ are broad, including field surveys and experiments, controlled laboratory experiments, molecular and morphological phylogenetics, population genetics, collection based research and statistical modeling. Although my approach tends to be focused on basic science, I am interested in how results from these studies can be applied in such fields as biological conservation and biological control of pests.
Some specific projects that I am currently involved in or developing include:

• Phylogeny and evolution of the Tachinidae –  I have a keen interest in the diversity and evolutionary relationships of tachinid flies (Diptera:Tachinidae), and in the evolution of their host associations and attack strategies. With collaborators J.E. O’Hara (CNC); P. Cerretti (U. Roma), J.K. Moulton (U. Tenn.) and others, I have been working towards reconstructing the evolutionary relationships of the family on a world-wide basis. We plan to use our phylogenetic results will be used to revise current classifications and assess the evolution of host-associated traits. I am also involved in several taxonomy/systematics projects focused on tachinid flies.
• Adaptive radiation in Asteromyia gall midges and their parasitoids -- A collaborative NSF funded project (with P. Abbot, Vanderbilt U.) aimed at examining the ecological causes and evolutionary patterns of adaptive radiation. We are using the association of Asteromyia gall midges on their goldenrod host plants as a focal study system for this work due to the widespread, fine-scale host associated genetic differentiation in this system and the complex multi-trophic interactions that are likely shaping this diversification. This work involves field surveys and field experiments, lab experiments, insect systematic and molecular phylogenetic and phylogeographic methods. In addition, we are currently beginning to employ genomic analyses to understand adaptive divergence in this system.
• Diversity and community structure of caterpillars and parasitoids in the Ecuadorian Andes - A collaborative project with Lee Dyer (Tulane U.) and many others aimed at documenting the diversity of Lepidoptera and their parasitoids in a montane tropical cloud forest, and understanding their tritrophic interactions and compartmentalization into food webs. My focus is on the diversity, taxonomy, and host associations of the tachinid fly parasitoids.
• The effects of anthropogenic change on tritrophic interactions: plant-caterpillar-parasitoid interactions in the Midwest US – An ongoing project examining the effects of climate change, forest fragmentation and invasive honeysuckle on the diversity and dynamics of insect communities in southwest Ohio.

Recent Publications

Brown, J.M. and Stireman, J.O. III. 2025. Effects of forest age and composition on mycophilous Coleoptera communities in a fragmented temperate deciduous woodland. Insects 16(7):735. https://doi.org/10.3390/insects16070735

Cerretti, P., Mei, M., Ascenzi, A., O’Hara, J.E., Parchami-Araghi, M. Stireman, J.O. III. 2025. New genera and species of Afrotropical Tachinidae (Diptera). Integrative Systematics 8(1):145-170. DOI: 10.18476/2025.694996.

Gonçalves-Souza, T., Vancine, M.H. et al. (and 78 others, including Stireman, J.O. III). 2025. LandFrag: A dataset to investigate the effects of forest loss and fragmentation on biodiversity. Global Ecology and Biogeography 34(2): e70015 https://doi.org/10.1111/geb.70015

Grele, A.J., Massad, T.J., Uckele, K.A., Dyer, L.A., Braga, L., Forister, M.L., Sulca-Garro, L.A., Kato, M.J., Lopez, H.G., Nascimento, A.R., Parchman, T.L., Simbaña, W.R., Smilanich, A.M., Stireman, J.O., Tepe, E.J., Richards, L.A., Walla, T.R. 2024. Reduction of intraspecific and interspecific tropical plant diversity alters insect richness, herbivory, and ecosystem resilience. Elife 12:RP86988 https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.86988.3

Massad, T.J., Nascimento, A.R., Moreno, D.C., Simbaña, W.R., Garcia, H., Sulca-Garro, L.A., Lepesqueur, C., Richards, L.A., Forister, M.L., Stireman III, J.O., Tepe, E.J., Uckele, K.A., L.A., Braga, Walla, T.R., Smilanich, A.M., Grele, A.J., Dyer, L. 2024. Variation in the strength of local and regional determinants of herbivory across the Neotropics. Oikos e10218 doi: 10.1111/oik.10218 **(Editor’s Choice Article)**

Gisondi, S., Jensen A.R., Stireman III, J.O., Nihei S.S., Pape, T. & Cerretti, P. 2023. Phylogenetic relationships of the woodlouse flies (Rhinophorinae) and the cluster flies (Polleniidae). PLOS ONE 18(9): e0285855.

Stireman III, J.O., Workman, S.T. 2023. Use of Invasive Amur Honeysuckle (Lonicera maackii) by native caterpillars. Biological Invasions 25:1579–1594

Falcon-Brindis, A., Stireman, J.O. III, Viloria, Z.J., Villanueva, R. 2022. Parasitism of corn earworm, Helicoverpa zea (Boddie) (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae), by tachinid flies in cultivated hemp. Insects 13:519, https://doi.org/10.3390/insects13060519

Stireman J.O. III and Shaw, S.R. 2022. Chapter 11: Natural History and ecology of caterpillar parasitoids. Pp. 225-272, In: Marquis, R.J. and Koptur, S. (eds.) Caterpillars in the middle: Tritrophic interactions in a changing world. Springer, New York.

Stireman, J.O. III, Cerretti, P. O’Hara, J.E., Moulton, J.K. 2021. Extraordinary diversification of the “bristle flies” (Diptera: Tachinidae) and its underlying causes. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society 133:216-23.

Gisondi, S., Bellanti, G., Mei, M., Di Giulio, A., Stireman, J.O. III, Cerretti, P. 2021. Pelamera atra (Rondani, 1861) (Diptera: Tachinidae) - systematics of a rare and enigmatic bristle fly from Europe. Zoologischer Anzeiger 290:12-18.

Satler, J.D., Bernhard, K.K., Stireman, J.O. III, Machado, C.A., Houston, D.D., and Nason, J.D. 2020. Community structure and undescribed species diversity in non-pollinating fig wasps associated with the strangler fig Ficus petiolaris. Insect Systematics and Diversity 4:3 https://doi.org/10.1093/isd/ixaa005.

Burington, Z.L., Inclan-Luna, D.J., Pollet, M., Stireman, J.O. III.  2020. Latitudinal patterns in tachinid parasitoid diversity (Diptera: Tachinidae): a review of the evidence. Insect Conservation and Diversity 13: 419-431. doi: 10.1111/icad.12416.

Dorchin, N, Harris, K.M, Stireman, J.O. III. 2019. Phylogeny of the gall midges (Diptera, Cecidomyiidae, Cecidomyiinae): systematics, evolution of feeding modes and diversification rates, Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 140: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ympev.2019.106602

Vidal, M.C., Quinn, T.W., Stireman, J.O. III, Tinghitella, R.M. and Murphy, S.M. 2019. Influence of geography and host plant use on the population genetic structure of a generalist herbivore. Molecular Ecology 28:4317–4334.

Liebergesell, M., Travis, Berg, A., (and 31 others, including Stireman, J.O. III). 2019. FragSAD: A meta-database of diversity and species abundance distributions from habitat fragmentation studies. Ecology. DOI:10.1002/ecy.2861.

Stireman, J.O. III, Cerretti, P., O’Hara, J.E., and Moulton, J.K. 2019. Molecular phylogeny and evolution of world Tachinidae. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. 139: article106358. (Editor’s choice article)

Cerretti, P., Stireman, J.O. III, Badano, D., Gisondi, S., Rognes, K., Lo Giudice, G. and Pape, T. 2019. Reclustering the Cluster flies. Systematic Entomology 44:957-972.

   S Stireman, J.O. III and Singer, M.S. 2018. Tritrophic niches of insect herbivores in an era of rapid environmental change. Current Opinion in Insect Science 29:117-125.

Heath, J.J., Abbot, P., Stireman, J.O. III. 2018. Adaptive divergence in a defense symbiosis driven from the top down. The American Naturalist 192:E21-E36.

Blaschke, J.S., Stireman, J.O. III, O’Hara, J.E., Cerretti, P., Moulton, J.K. 2018.  Molecular Phylogenetics and Piercer Evolution in the Bug-Killing Flies (Diptera: Tachinidae: Phasiinae). Systematic Entomology 43:218-238.

Brown, B.V., Borkent, A., Adler, P.H. (and 56 others, including Stireman, J.O. III) 2018. Inventory versus extrapolation: first full inventory of a tropical site for a megadiversity group of insects, true flies (Diptera). Communications Biology 1:21. DOI: 10.1038/s42003-018-0022-x.

Borkent, A., Brown, B.V., Adler, P.H. 2018. (and 56 others, including Stireman, J.O. III). Remarkable fly (Diptera) diversity in a patch of Costa Rican cloud forest: Why inventory is a vital science. Zootaxa 4402 (1): 053–090. DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4402.1.3

Inclán, D.J., O’Hara, J.E., Stireman, J.O. III, Shima, H., Pohjoismäki, J., Lo Giudice, G. and Cerretti, P. 2018. The monophyly of the Glaurocarini (Diptera: Tachinidae: Tachininae) with the description of a new species of Semisuturia from Australia. Insect Systematics & Evolution 49:1-22.