Members of the White Lab are interested in describing and understanding the causes and consequences of broad-scale variation in the physiology of animals. We study a range of traits, with an emphasis on metabolic rate, water loss, and breathing patterns, and employ a range of approaches including manipulative experiments, comparative studies, experimental evolution, and quantitative genetic analyses.
Members of the Lab work on a range of species, which are usually selected according to the August Krogh principle “For many problems there is an animal on which it can be most conveniently studied”. Thus, research has been undertaken with a diverse array of species (see below). Much of our work is conducted in the laboratory using speckled cockroaches (Nauphoeta cinerea), red flour beetle (Tribolium castaneum), and Drosophila as model species, but recent fieldwork has also been undertaken in the UK and Australia, with previous field work including Crete and French Guiana.
Present work encompasses three main themes:
- The evolution of periodic ventilation in insects
- Macrophysiological and allometric variation in the energy expenditure of animals
- The role of physiological traits in structuring ecological patterns
Our research is currently funded by a Discovery grant and a Future Fellowship from the Australian Research Council.
Arthropods
Inland robust scorpion (Urodacus yaschenkoi)
Brown cockchafer (Rhopaea magnicornis)
Bumblebee (Bombus terrestris)
Common slater (Porcellio scaber)
Cowboy beetle (Chondropyga dorsalis)
Flower beetle (Protateia cretica)
Fruit fly (Drosophila melanogaster)
Fruit fly (Drosophila serrata)
Glowworm (Arachnocampa flava)
Hedge grasshopper (Valanga irregularis)
Mealworm (Tenebrio molitor)
Migratory locust (Locusta migratoria)
Mole cricket (Gryllotalpa monanka)
Red flour beetle (Tribolium castaneum)
Rhinoceros beetle (Xylotrupes ulysses)
Rhinoceros beetle (Oryctes nasicornis)
Scarab beetle (Cyclocephala colasi)
Silverfish (Heterolepisma sclerophyllum)
Speckled cockroach (Nauphoeta cinerea)
Superworm (Zophobas morio)
Leichhardtian river prawn (Macrobrachium tolmerum)
Two-toned fiddler crab (Uca vomeris)
Marine Invertebrates
Ascidian (Styela plicata)
Ascidian (Botrylloides sp.)
Ascidian (Diplosoma listerianum)
Ascidian (Didemnum sp.)
Ascidian (Botryllus sp.)
Barnacle (Balanus amphitrite)
Bryozoan (Hippoporina indica)
Bryozoan (Bugula neritina)
Bryozoan (Bugula stolonifera)
Bryozoan (Schizoporella sp.)
Bryozoan (Watersipora subtorquata)
Polychaete (Hydroides diramphus)
Polychaete (Janua pagenstecheri)
Sponge (Sycon sp.)
Sponge (Porania sp.)
Vertebrates
Mosquitofish (Gambusia holbrooki)
Pacific blue-eye (Pseudomugil signifer)
Pearl gourami (Trichogaster leeri)
Ornate rainbowfish (Rhadinocentrus ornatus)
Siamese fighting fish (Betta splendens)
Threadfin rainbowfish (Iriatherina werneri)
Bridled frog (Litoria nigrofrenata)
Cane toads (Bufo marinus)
Ornate burrowing frog (Platyplectrum ornatum)
Striped burrowing frog (Cyclorana alboguttata)
Striped marsh frog (Limnodynastes peronii)
Closed-litter rainbow-skink (Carlia longipes)
Common blue-tongued skink (Tiliqua scincoides)
Cunningham’s skink (Egernia cunninghami)
Desert skink (Liopholis inornata)
Estuarine crocodile (Crocodylus porosus)
Garden skink (Lampropholis delicata)
Pink-tongued skink (Cyclodomorphus gerrardii)
Major skink (Bellatorias frerei)
Night skink (Liopholis striata)
Tree skink (Egernia striolata)
Barnacle goose (Branta leucopsis)
Double-crested cormorants (Phalacrocorax auritus)
Great cormorant (Phalacrocorax carbo)
Lesser Flamingo (Phoeniconaias minor)
Brush-tailed rock-wallaby (Petrogale penicillata)
Homo sapiens
Laboratory mice (Mus musculus)
Southern hairy-nosed wombat (Lasiorhinus latifrons)
Spinifex hopping mouse (Notomys alexis)
Evolutionary Physiology 