SPENCER T. BEHMER

Assistant Professor
Entomology

Department of Entomology
Texas A&M University
TAMU 2475
College Station, TX 77843-2475 USA
Office: 509 Minnie Belle Heep Bldg. (map)
Phone: +001 979.845.3411
Fax: +001 979.845.6305
E-mail: s-behmer@tamu.edu
Behmer Lab
Department Web page

Interest:
Feeding is a lifetime proposition for all animals and the foraging decisions any animal makes has fitness repercussions. Ultimately foraging is about nutrient acquisition, and this is a primary focus of my research. Specifically, I work at the interface between physiology and ecology, and am interested in how interactions at this level influence the expression of feeding behavior. I use plant-feeding insects (primarily grasshoppers and caterpillars) as model systems and most recently I have been conducting experiments that focus on how nutrient intake is regulated in chemically variable environments, and how learning contributes to this process. I address these issues both in the short-term and across evolutionary time. I have additional interests in phenotypic plasticity of behavior (e.g. phase transition in locusts), the physiological basis of learning and physiological adaptations for dealing with heavy metal and pH problems in food.

Selected Publications:
Behmer, S.T. and Joern, A. (2008) Coexisting generalist herbivores occupy unique nutritional feeding niches. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA 105, 1977-1982

Pompilio, L, Kacelnik, A. and Behmer, S.T. (2006) State-dependent
learned valuation drives choice in an invertebrate. Science 313, 1613-1615.

Warbrick-Smith, J., Behmer, S.T., Lee, K.P., Raubenheimer, D. and
Simpson, S.J. (2006) Evolving resitance to obesity in an insect. Proceedings
of the National Academy of Sciences, USA 103, 14045-14049.

Behmer, S.T., Belt, C.E and Shapiro, M.S. (2005) Variable rewards and
discrimination ability in an insect herbivore: what and how does a hungry
locust learn? Journal of Experimental Biology 208, 3463-3473.

Behmer, S.T., Lloyd, C.M., Raubenheimer, D., Stewart-Clark, J., Knight, J.,
Leighton, R.S., Harris, F.A. and Smith, J.A.C. (2005) Metal hyperaccumulation
in plants: mechanisms of defence against insect herbivores.
Functional Ecology 19, 55-66.

Behmer, S.T. and Nes, W.D. (2003) Insect sterol nutrition and physiology:
a global overview. Advances in Insect Physiology 31, 1-72.

Behmer, S.T., Raubenheimer, D. and Simpson, S.J. (2003) The effects of distance between foods on nutrient regulation in a highly mobile insect herbivore. Animal Behaviour 66, 665-675.

Behmer, S.T., Simpson, S.J. and Raubenheimer, D. (2002) Herbivore
foraging in chemically heterogeneous environments: nutrients and
secondary metabolites. Ecology 83, 2489-2501.