Dr. Rolf G. Oberprieler
CSIRO
Rolf is Senior Researcher and Zimmerman Fellow at the Australian National Insect Collection in CSIRO’s National Research Collections Australia program in Canberra, Australia. He has worked on the systematics, phylogeny and classification of weevils (superfamily Curculionoidea) for 35 years, from 1981 to 1997 in South Africa, and since then in Australia. His research focusses on the diversity and phylogenetic relationships of southern-hemisphere weevil taxa as well as on complexes of cryptic species of importance in applied science such as forestry, weed control, and plant ecology and conservation.
Rolf has published >150 papers on weevil systematics and has been instrumental in developing the major current classification system of weevils, as adopted in the recent Handbook of Zoology, Coleoptera Volume 3, and in a comprehensive catalogue of the Australian weevil fauna. His 2007 invited review paper on weevil diversity, classification and evolution is one of the most highly cited papers in weevil systematics of the last decade. He currently participates as Senior Advisor in a multilateral project aimed at reconstructing the phylogeny of the superdiverse weevil family Curculionidae, funded by the N.S.F. and centred at the University of Memphis, U.S.A. He is also currently completing a monographic treatise of the Australian weevil subfamily Entiminae, which includes the tribe Ectemnorhinini inhabiting the sub-Antarctic islands.
Key publications
Gunter NL, Oberprieler RG, and Cameron SL (2015) Molecular phylogenetics of Australian weevils (Coleoptera: Curculionoidea) — exploring relationships in a hyperdiverse lineage through comparison of independent analyses. Austral Entomology. DOI: 10.1111/aen.12173
Pullen KR, Jennings D, and Oberprieler RG (2014) Annotated catalogue of Australian weevils (Coleoptera: Curculionoidea). Zootaxa, 3896: 1–481. DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.3896.1.1.
Marvaldi AE, Lanteri AA, Guadalupe del Rio M, and Oberprieler RG (2014) 3.7.5 Entiminae Schoenherr, 1823. Pp. 503–522. In: Leschen, RAB, & Beutel, R G (Eds) Handbook of Zoology. Arthropoda: Insecta. Coleoptera, Beetles. Volume 3: Morphology and Systematics (Phytophaga). Walter de Gruyter, Berlin/Boston.
Mapondera T, Burgess T, Matsuki M, and Oberprieler RG (2012) Identification and molecular phylogenetics of the cryptic species of the Gonipterus scutellatus complex (Coleoptera: Curculionidae: Gonipterini). Australian Journal of Entomology, 51: 175–188. DOI: 10.1111/j.1440-6055.2011.00853.x
Oberprieler RG, Marvaldi AE, and Anderson RS (2007) Weevils, weevils, weevils everywhere. Zootaxa 1668: 491–520.