Decoding decline: How climate change alters sexual signalling and population dynamics in insects

About this opportunity

To cope with ever-changing environmental conditions, insects produce cuticular hydrocarbons (CHCs), waxy lipids secreted onto their cuticle that prevent desiccation. However, these CHCs also act as pheromones crucial for communication during mating and contests. Given that CHCs function both as a barrier between an insect and its environment and to convey messages during sexual interactions, they provide an ideal trait to investigate the interaction between natural and sexual selection. How these selective forces interact to shape the evolution of CHCs is poorly known, especially under climate change.

Using an endemic beetle, pepeke nguturoa (the New Zealand giraffe weevil), found across most of Aotearoa New Zealand, this PhD project will investigate the role of CHCs in sexual signalling and the trade-off between desiccation resistance and communication using behavioural experiments in the lab and field in combination with the use of analytical chemistry techniques.

Location

The candidate will be based at the University of Waikato in Kirikiriroa/Hamilton under the Chief Supervision of Dr Chrissie Painting, and co-supervised by Dr Megan Grainger (University of Waikato), PD Dr Florian Menzel (Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz, Germany) and Professor Leigh Simmons (University of Western Australia, Australia).

Scholarship Value

This is a fully funded University of Waikato Seeker Scholarship PhD position for 3 years (an annual stipend of $30,000, plus tuition fees).

We encourage both international and domestic students to apply for this position, which will be based in the Invertebrate Behavioural Ecology lab at the University of Waikato in Kirikiriroa/Hamilton, Aotearoa New Zealand. Kirikiriroa is a relatively small but vibrant town to live and work, offering a fantastic mix of rural and city life. It is also centrally located in the North Island of New Zealand, making it a great base from which to travel the North Island.

The successful student would start by June 2025.

The general Higher Degrees admission criteria apply.

This vacancy has additional eligibility criteria:

• A strong background in at least one of: behavioural ecology, evolutionary ecology, chemical ecology.
• Experience or an interest in ecological field work and/or laboratory based experimentation
• Experience or an interest in learning GC-MS analytical techniques
• Strong statistical analytical skills (preferably in R)
• Excellent communication skills in English (written and spoken)
• An open mind and willingness to learn and work in a team
• A full drivers license