John O. Stireman III
Assistant Professor

Research Interests


I have broad interests in ecology and evolutionary biology and in uniting these fields to study how biological diversity is organized and how it has developed over evolutionary time.  My research interests span such topics as plant-herbivore and tri-trophic interactions, the processes of population differentiation and speciation, phylogenetic systematics, and the organization of ecological communities. My focus is primarily on terrestrial arthropods, especially 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 parasites, both herbivores and parasitoids. My interest in parasitic insects includes an empirical curiosity concerning their behavior, ecological interactions with hosts, phylogenetic histories and morphological-ecological diversification, and an interest in their usefulness in understanding theoretical issues, such as the evolution of specialization and host range, mechanisms of speciation, coevolution, the determinants of community structure, and the role of behavior in shaping all of these phenomena. I have employed a variety of approaches to investigate these topics including controlled behavioral experiments, ecological field surveys, and phylogenetic reconstruction. Although I will continue to explore ecological and evolutionary questions in a range of systems, my focus on parasitic and herbivorous insects is rooted in my conviction that a deep understanding of ones’ study system both enhances the ability to ask the most pertinent theoretical questions and to interpret the subsequent results. In addition, I believe that a multidisciplinary approach employing perspectives and techniques from a variety of fields is not only useful, but necessary for understanding ecological and evolutionary patterns and how they are generated.

Some specific projects that I am currently involved in or developing include:

  • Biological survey of caterpillars and parasitoids in the Ecuadorian Andes - A collaborative project with Lee Dyer (Tulane U.) and others aimed at documenting the diversity of Lepidoptera, their parasitoids, and the tritrophic interactions involving them in a montane tropical cloud forest.
  • A mutualism on the edge: Fig-Fig wasp interactions in the Sonoran Desert – A collaborative study with John Nason (Iowa State) examining the consequences of small population size on fig reproductive phenology and parasite load in harsh environments of the Sonoran Desert.
  • Molecular Phylogeny of the Tachinidae –  A proposal to reconstruct evolutionary relationships of the tachinid flies using multiple loci with J.K. Moulton (U. Tennessee).
  • The effects of woodland fragmentation on tritrophic interactions: plant-caterpillar-parasitoid interactions in the Midwest US – A project I hope to develop soon examining the effects of habitat fragmentation on insect communities in Ohio.
  • Adaptive radiation in Asteromyia gall midges -- A collaborative NSF funded project examining the ecological causes and evolutionary consequences of adaptive radiation of Asteromyia gall midges on goldenrods and related Asteraceae in a complex multi-trophic framework.

Recent Publications:

Stireman, J.O. III, Nason, J. D., Heard, S., and Seehawer, J.M. 2006. Cascading host-associated genetic differentiation in parasitoids of
phytophagous insects. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, Series B 273:523-530.

Stireman, J.O. III, Nason, J. D. and Heard, S. 2005.Host-associated genetic differentiation in phytophagous insects: General phenomenon or isolated exceptions? evidence from a goldenrod-insect community Evolution 59:2573-2587.

Stireman, J.O. III, O’Hara, J.E., and Wood, D.M. 2006. Behavior, ecology and evolution of tachinid parasitoids. Annual Review of Entomology 51. 51:525-555.

Singer, M.S. and Stireman, J.O. III. The tri-trophic niche concept and adaptive radiation of phytophagous insects. Ecology Letters 8:1247-1255.

Stireman, J.O. III. 2005. The evolution of generalization? Parasitoid flies and the perils of inferring host range evolution from phylogenies. Journal of Evolutionary Biology 18: 325-336.

Singer, M.S., Rodrigues, D., Stireman, J.O. III, Carriere, Y. 2004. Comparing bitrophic and tri-trophic causes of host use in a phytophagous insect. Ecology 85: 2747-2753.

Dyer, L.A., Dodson, C.D., Stireman, J.O. III, Tobler, M.A., Smilanich, A.M. and Fincher, R.M. 2003. Synergistic effects of three Piper amides on generalist and specialist herbivores. Journal of Chemical Ecology 29:2499-2514.

Stireman, J.O. III and Singer, M.S. 2003. What determines host range in parasitoids? An analysis of a tachinid parasitoid community. Oecologia 135:629-638.

Stireman, J.O. III and Singer, M.S. 2003. Determinants of parasitoid-host associations: Insights from a natural tachinid-lepidopteran community. Ecology 84:296-310.