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Dr Peter J Mayhew
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Contact Details Department of Biology (Area 18) University of York PO Box 373 York YO10 5YW Tel: +44 (0)1904 328644 E-mail: pjm19@york.ac.uk Office: B/J204 Web Page: Dr Peter Mayhew |
Career Outline
| 1992 | BA Zoology | University of Oxford |
| 1996 | PhD | University of London (Imperial College) |
| 1996-1998 | Royal Society Post-Doctoral Fellow | Leiden (Netherlands) |
| 1997 | MA | University of Oxford |
| 1998-2008 | Lecturer | Department of Biology, University of York |
| 2008 | Senior Lecturer | Department of Biology, University of York |
Research Interests
My main interest is the evolutionary ecology of insects, and my work combines field and laboratory studies, comparative biology and theory. One focus is the explanation of life history traits through ecological selection pressures and constraints, especially in parasitic wasps which are very species rich and have fascinating biology. I also have significant interests in macroevolution (understanding the diversification of insects) and the ecological basis of conservation biology (devising tools to conserve parasitoids).
Discoveries
During the last 520 million years, warm “greenhouse” phases have been associated with relatively low biodiversity and relatively high extinction and origination rates compared to cooler “icehouse” phases. Tree species richness can be a good surrogate of parasitoid richness for use in nature reserve selection.
Awards
2000 York Certificate of Academic Practice
2007 Vice-Chancellor’s Teaching Award
Some Recent Publications
Mayhew PJ (2007) Why are there so many insect species? Perspectives from fossils and phylogenies Biological Reviews 82: 425-454
Fraser SEM, Beresford AE, Peters J, Redhead JW, Welch AJ, Mayhew PJ and Dytham C (2008) Effectiveness of vegetation surrogates for parasitoid wasps in reserve selection Conservation Biology (In press) :
Current Research Projects
- Understanding the constraints on sex ratio adaptation using artificial neural networks. A BBSRC funded project with Simon O’Keefe at York, and Stu West and Dave Shuker at Edinburgh
Funding body: BBSRC - Insect supertrees: A joint BBSRC studentship with Sandie Baldauf
Funding body: BBSRC - Control of glasshouse shoreflies using Aphaereta parasitoids. A studentship funded by NERC and the Stockbridge Technology Centre
Funding body: NERC and the Stockbridge Technology Centre - Reproduction, senescence and longevity in humans. A joint white rose studentship with Virpi Lummaa at Sheffield
Funding body: White Rose - Evolutionary explanations for insect diversity. A NERC CASE studentship with the Natural History Museum, London and Dr Andrew Ross (National Museums of Scotland)
Funding body: NERC
Professional Activities
- Associate editor of the journal Functional Ecology
- Organizer of the Insect Parasitoid Special Interest Group of the Royal Entomological Society
PhD Research Projects Available for 2010
Explaining insect richness using supertrees (for 2010-11)Phylogenies can tell us a lot about the timing and nature of diversification. The insects and their kin contain over half of all described species, so contain important messages about the drivers of diversity in terrestrial systems. To best extract these messages, it is essential to have reliable descriptions of the relatedness of the different major insect groups, but individual studies have naturally tended to proceed piece-meal by studying only a small number of taxonomic groups. This project will use recent supertree techniques and methods for detecting diversification shifts to address the location, and likely causes, of radiations across insect families. (Find a PhD)
Conservation biology of parasitoids (for 2010-11)
Parasitic wasps comprise more than 10% of all animals, and are vulnerable to extinction but are not yet considered in conservation planning. This studentship will conduct work to redress that by conducting field surveys of wasp richness and abundance to test hypotheses about the effectivensss of current conservation planning criteria. The studentship will be co-supervised by Calvin Dytham (York) and Gavin Broad (Natural History Museum).
Lab Members
| Status | Name | Project |
| Postdoc | Hannah Lewis | Understanding the constraints on sex ratio adaptation using artificial neural networks |
| Research Student | David Nicholson | Evolutionary explanations for insect diversity |
| Research Student | Rob Davis | A supertree of insect families. |
| Research Student | Luke Tilley | Biological control of the greenhouse shorefly using two species of parasitoid. |
| Research Student | Duncan Gillespie | Reproduction, senescence and longevity in humans. |