Dr Simon Tierney
School of Biological Sciences
College of Science
I am an Evolutionary Ecologist interested in transitions in animal behaviour. I use molecular tool-kits to understand the interplay between whole organisms, their environment and their genes, with a focus on the evolution of insect social organisation and photic niche shifts. My PhD investigated allodapine bees that can switch between solitary and social lifestyles, and I then undertook a series of postdocs exploring neotropical halictine bees that are similarly social, but unusual in their habit of obligate nocturnal foraging. This latter research program developed a parallel interest in vision and my current postdoctoral research involves projects that use high-throughput sequencing to explore the regressive evolution of eye genes in subterranean water beetles; in addition to projects on differential gene expression between queen vs. worker castes and social parasites vs. their hosts (allodapine bees). I have considerable field experience in Australia, the Americas, Africa and Asia.
RESEARCH INTERESTS
Behaviour, Ecology, Natural History, Vision, Molecular Evolution, Systematics, Biogeography.
COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT
Radio
ABC, Radio National, 28 January 2015.
RN Afternoons, live interview with Michael Mackenzie – “Blind beetles”
News Articles
Science Magazine, ScienceNow – news from Science, 26 July 2011
ScienceShot: A buzz in the dark
ABC, Science Online - Ask an Expert, 18 March 2015
How does evolution explain animals losing vision? Doug Futuyma & Simon Tierney
The Conversation, Science + Technology, 5 February 2015
What blind beetles can teach us about evolution - Simon Tierney (invited contribution)
Entomology Today, Entomological Society of America, 30 January 2015.
Blind Cave Beetles Lack Eyes but Still Have Sight Genes
| Date | Position | Institution name |
|---|---|---|
| 2015 - ongoing | Lecturer B | University of Adelaide |
| 2013 - ongoing | Postdoctoral Fellow | University of Adelaide |
| 2005 - 2011 | Postdoctoral Fellow | Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute |
| Language | Competency |
|---|---|
| English | Can read, write, speak, understand spoken and peer review |
| Spanish; Castilian | Can read, write, speak and understand spoken |
| Date | Institution name | Country | Title |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2000 - 2005 | Flinders University | Australia | PhD |
| 1994 - 1994 | Flinders University | Australia | Honours |
| 1991 - 1993 | Flinders University | Australia | BA |
| Year | Citation |
|---|---|
| 2025 | Tierney, S. M., Jaumann, S., Hightower, O., & Smith, A. R. (2025). Brain development in a facultatively social allodapine bee aligns with caste, but not group living. Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution, 13, 11 pages. WoS1 |
| 2025 | Bossert, S., & Tierney, S. M. (2025). Origin of obligate dim-light foraging in nomiine sweat bees (Halictidae: Nomiinae), with the description of a new species of Mellitidia. Arthropod Plant Interactions, 19(4), 18 pages. |
| 2025 | Tierney, S. M., Jeffries, T. C., & Koch, H. (2025). Microbial Evolution in Allodapine Bees: Perspectives From Trophallactic, Socially Plastic Pollinators. Evolutionary Applications, 18(7), 18 pages. |
| 2025 | Eeraerts, M., Osterman, J., Batáry, P., Klein, A. M., Albrecht, M., Andersson, G. K. S., . . . Verheyen, K. (2025). Global synthesis of apple pollination research highlights general pollen limitation and positive contributions of wild bees compared to honeybees. Journal of Applied Ecology, 62(10), 2487-2501. Scopus1 WoS1 |
| 2024 | Bernauer, O. M., Branstetter, M. G., Cook, J. M., & Tierney, S. M. (2024). Functional trait mismatch between native and introduced bee pollinators servicing a global fruit crop. BMC Ecology and Evolution, 24(1), 18 pages. Scopus1 WoS1 Europe PMC1 |
| 2023 | Chapman, N. C., Colin, T., Cook, J., da Silva, C. R. B., Gloag, R., Hogendoorn, K., . . . Mikheyev, A. S. (2023). The final frontier: ecological and evolutionary dynamics of a global parasite invasion.. Biology Letters, 19(5), 7 pages. Scopus29 WoS25 Europe PMC19 |
| 2023 | Tierney, S. M., Bernauer, O. M., King, L., Spooner-Hart, R., & Cook, J. M. (2023). Bee pollination services and the burden of biogeography. Proceedings of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences, 290(2000), 12 pages. Scopus8 WoS7 Europe PMC6 |
| 2022 | Shokri Bousjein, N., Tierney, S. M., Gardner, M. G., & Schwarz, M. P. (2022). Does effective population size affect rates of molecular evolution: Mitochondrial data for host/parasite species pairs in bees suggests not. Ecology and Evolution, 12(2), 13 pages. Scopus1 WoS1 Europe PMC1 |
| 2022 | Bernauer, O. M., Cook, J. M., & Tierney, S. M. (2022). Division of foraging behaviour: Assessments of pollinator traits when visiting a model plant species. Animal Behaviour, 188, 169-179. Scopus7 WoS7 |
| 2022 | Langille, B. L., Tierney, S. M., Bertozzi, T., Beasley-Hall, P. G., Bradford, T. M., Fagan-Jeffries, E. P., . . . Cooper, S. J. B. (2022). Parallel decay of vision genes in subterranean water beetles. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution, 173, 1-9. Scopus20 WoS18 Europe PMC13 |
| 2022 | Bernauer, O. M., Tierney, S. M., & Cook, J. M. (2022). Efficiency and effectiveness of native bees and honey bees as pollinators of apples in New South Wales orchards. Agriculture Ecosystems and Environment, 337, 11 pages. Scopus36 WoS26 |
| 2022 | Beasley-Hall, P. G., Bertozzi, T., Bradford, T. M., Foster, C. S. P., Jones, K., Tierney, S. M., . . . Cooper, S. J. B. (2022). Differential transcriptomic responses to heat stress in surface and subterranean diving beetles. Scientific Reports, 12(1), 1-11. Scopus13 WoS11 Europe PMC6 |
| 2021 | Stringer, D., Bertozzi, T., Meusemann, K., Delean, J., Guzik, M., Tierney, S., . . . Austin, A. (2021). Development and evaluation of a custom bait design based on 469 single-copy protein-coding genes for exon capture of isopods (Philosciidae: Haloniscus). PLoS One, 16(9), 1-24. Scopus2 WoS1 |
| 2021 | Bernauer, O. M., Cook, J. M., & Tierney, S. M. (2021). Nesting biology and social organisation of the allodapine bee Exoneura angophorae (Hymenoptera: Apidae): montane environmental constraints yield biased sex allocation yet phenology is unhindered. Insectes Sociaux, 68(4), 337-349. Scopus9 WoS9 |
| 2021 | Freelance, C. B., Tierney, S. M., Rodriguez, J., Stuart-Fox, D. M., Wong, B. B. M., & Elgar, M. A. (2021). The eyes have it: Dim-light activity is associated with the morphology of eyes but not antennae across insect orders. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 134(2), 303-315. Scopus15 WoS14 |
| 2021 | Beasley-Hall, P. G., Bertozzi, T., Bradford, T. M., Foster, C. S. P., Jones, K., Tierney, S. M., . . . Cooper, S. J. B. (2021). Stressed out underground?: Transcriptomics illuminates the genome-wide response to heat stress in surface and subterranean diving beetles. |
| 2020 | Langille, B. L., Hyde, J., Saint, K. M., Bradford, T. M., Stringer, D. N., Tierney, S. M., . . . Cooper, S. J. B. (2020). Evidence for speciation underground in diving beetles (Dytiscidae) from a subterranean archipelago. Evolution; International Journal of Organic Evolution, 75(1), 166-175. Scopus26 WoS18 Europe PMC8 |
| 2019 | Freelance, C. B., Majoe, M., Tierney, S. M., & Elgar, M. A. (2019). Antennal asymmetry is not associated with social behaviour in Australian Hymenoptera. Austral Entomology, 58(3), 589-594. Scopus8 WoS5 |
| 2019 | Langille, B. L., Tierney, S. M., Austin, A. D., Humphreys, W. F., & Cooper, S. J. B. (2019). How blind are they? Phototactic responses in stygobiont diving beetles (Coleoptera: Dytiscidae) from calcrete aquifers of Western Australia. Austral Entomology, 58(2), 425-431. Scopus12 WoS12 |
| 2018 | Klopfstein, S., Van Der Schyff, G., Tierney, S., & Austin, A. (2018). Wolbachia infections in Australian ichneumonid parasitoid wasps (Hymenoptera: Ichneumonidae): Evidence for adherence to the global equilibrium hypothesis. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 123(3), 518-534. Scopus7 WoS6 |
| 2018 | Dew, R. M., Tierney, S. M., & Schwarz, M. P. (2018). Lack of ovarian skew in an allodapine bee and the evolution of casteless social behaviour. Ethology Ecology & Evolution, 30(1), 51-69. Scopus8 WoS6 |
| 2018 | Beasley-Hall, P., Tierney, S., Weinstein, P., & Austin, A. (2018). A revised phylogeny of macropathine cave crickets (Orthoptera: Rhaphidophoridae) uncovers a paraphyletic Australian fauna. Molecular phylogenetics and evolution, 126, 153-161. Scopus15 WoS11 Europe PMC7 |
| 2018 | Tierney, S. M., Langille, B., Humphreys, W. F., Austin, A. D., & Cooper, S. J. (2018). Massive parallel regression: a précis of genetic mechanisms for vision loss in diving beetles. Integrative and Comparative Biology, 58(3), 465-479. Scopus17 WoS14 Europe PMC9 |
| 2017 | Tierney, S., Friedrich, M., Humphreys, W., Jones, T., Warrant, E., & Wcislo, W. (2017). Consequences of evolutionary transitions in changing photic environments. Austral Entomology, 56(1), 23-46. Scopus62 WoS57 |
| 2017 | Dew, R., Tierney, S., Gardner, M., & Schwarz, M. (2017). Casteless behaviour in social groups of the bee Exoneurella eremophila. Apidologie, 49(2), 1-11. Scopus4 WoS4 |
| 2016 | Dew, R., Tierney, S., & Schwarz, M. (2016). Social evolution and casteless societies: needs for new terminology and a new evolutionary focus. Insectes Sociaux, 63(1), 5-14. Scopus28 WoS24 |
| 2015 | Rehan, S., Tierney, S., & Wcislo, W. (2015). Evidence for social nesting in Neotropical ceratinine bees. Insectes Sociaux, 62(4), 465-469. Scopus18 WoS17 |
| 2015 | Tierney, S., Cooper, S., Saint, K., Bertozzi, T., Hyde, J., Humphreys, W., & Austin, A. (2015). Opsin transcripts of predatory diving beetles: a comparison of surface and subterranean photic niches. Royal Society Open Science, 2(1), 140386-1-140386-12. Scopus38 WoS35 Europe PMC26 |
| 2013 | Smith, J., Chenoweth, L., Tierney, S., & Schwarz, M. (2013). Repeated origins of social parasitism in allodapine bees indicate that the weak form of Emery's rule is widespread, yet sympatric speciation remains highly problematic. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 109(2), 320-331. Scopus30 WoS27 Europe PMC6 |
| 2013 | Tierney, S. M., Fischer, C. N., Rehan, S. M., Kapheim, K. M., & Wcislo, W. T. (2013). Frequency of social nesting in the sweat bee Megalopta genalis (Halictidae) does not vary across a rainfall gradient, despite disparity in brood production and body size. Insectes Sociaux, 60(2), 163-172. Scopus12 WoS12 |
| 2012 | Dew, R., Rehan, S., Tierney, S., Chenoweth, L., & Schwarz, M. (2012). A single origin of large colony size in allodapine bees suggests a threshold event among 50 million years of evolutionary tinkering. Insectes Sociaux, 59(2), 207-214. Scopus15 WoS16 |
| 2012 | Tierney, S., Sanjur, O., Grajales, G., Santos, L., Bermingham, E., & Wcislo, W. (2012). Photic niche invasions: phylogenetic history of the dim-light foraging augochlorine bees (Halictidae). Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 279(1729), 794-803. Scopus28 WoS24 Europe PMC10 |
| 2011 | Schwarz, M., Tierney, S., Rehan, S., Chenoweth, L., & Cooper, S. (2011). The evolution of eusociality in allodapine bees: Workers began by waiting. Biology Letters, 7(2), 277-280. Scopus52 WoS51 Europe PMC23 |
| 2010 | Santos, L., Tierney, S., & Wcislo, W. (2010). Nest descriptions of Megalopta aegis (Vachal) and M. guimaraesi Santos & Silveira (Hymenoptera, Halictidae) from the Brazilian Cerrado = Descrição dos ninhos de Megalopta aegis (Vachal) e M. guimaraesi Santos & Silveira (Hymenoptera, Halictidae) do Cerrado. Revista Brasileira de Entomologia, 54(2), 332-334. Scopus10 WoS10 |
| 2009 | Wcislo, W., & Tierney, S. (2009). Behavioural environments and niche construction: the evolution of dim-light foraging in bees. Biological Reviews, 84(1), 19-37. Scopus78 WoS67 Europe PMC30 |
| 2009 | Tierney, S., & Schwarz, M. (2009). Reproductive hierarchies in the African allodapine bee Allodapula dichroa (Apidae; Xylocopinae) and ancestral forms of sociality. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 97(3), 520-530. Scopus13 WoS13 Europe PMC3 |
| 2008 | Tierney, S., Gonzales-Ojeda, T., & Wcislo, W. (2008). Biology of a nocturnal bee, Megalopta atra (Hymenoptera: Halictidae; Augochlorini), from the Panamanian highlands. Journal of Natural History, 42(27-28), 1841-1847. Scopus18 WoS16 |
| 2008 | Tierney, S., Gonzales-Ojeda, T., & Wcislo, W. (2008). Nesting biology and social behavior of Xenochlora bees (Hymenoptera: Halictidae: Augochlorini) from Perú. Journal of the Kansas Entomological Society, 81(1), 61-72. Scopus25 WoS22 |
| 2008 | Chenoweth, L., Fuller, S., Tierney, S., Park, Y., & Schwarz, M. (2008). Hasinamelissa: a new genus of allodapine bee from Madagascar revealed by larval morphology and DNA sequence data. Systematic Entomology, 33(4), 700-710. Scopus13 WoS14 |
| 2008 | Tierney, S., Smith, J., Chenoweth, L., & Schwarz, M. (2008). Phylogenetics of allodapine bees: a review of social evolution, parasitism and biogeography. Apidologie, 39(1), 3-15. Scopus31 WoS30 |
| 2007 | Chenoweth, L., Tierney, S., Smith, J., Cooper, S., & Schwarz, M. (2007). Social complexity in bees is not sufficient to explain lack of reversions to solitary living over long time scales. BMC Evolutionary Biology, 7(246), WWW 1-WWW 9. Scopus29 WoS29 Europe PMC14 |
| 2007 | Smith, J. A., Tierney, S. M., Park, Y. C., Fuller, S., & Schwarz, M. P. (2007). Origins of social parasitism: The importance of divergence ages in phylogenetic studies. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution, 43(3), 1131-1137. Scopus29 WoS26 Europe PMC12 |
| 2006 | Schwarz, M., Fuller, S., Tierney, S., & Cooper, S. (2006). Molecular phylogenetics of the exoneurine allodapine bees reveal an ancient and puzzling dispersal from Africa to Australia. Systematic Biology, 55(1), 31-45. Scopus65 WoS64 Europe PMC41 |
| 2006 | Aenmey, T. K., Tierney, S. M., Pillay, N., & Schwarz, M. P. (2006). Nesting biology of an African allodapine bee braunsapis vitrea: Female biased sex allocation in the absence of worker-like behavioural castes. Ethology Ecology and Evolution, 18(3), 205-220. Scopus11 WoS10 |
| 2005 | Fuller, S., Schwarz, M., & Tierney, S. (2005). Phylogenetics of the allodapine bee genus Braunsapis: Historical biogeography and long-range dispersal over water. Journal of Biogeography, 32(12), 2135-2144. Scopus71 WoS70 |
| 2005 | Schwarz, M. P., Tierney, S. M., Zammit, J., Schwarz, P. M., & Fuller, S. (2005). Brood provisioning and colony composition of a Malagasy species of Halterapis: Implications for social evolution in the allodapine bees (Hymenoptera: Apidae: Xylocopinae). Annals of the Entomological Society of America, 98(1), 126-133. Scopus23 WoS25 Europe PMC9 |
| 2004 | Schwartz, M., Tierney, S., Cooper, S., & Bull, N. (2004). Molecular phylogenetics of the allodapine bee genus Braunsapis: A-T bias and heterogeneous substitution parameters. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution, 32(1), 110-122. Scopus43 WoS45 Europe PMC27 |
| 2003 | Tierney, S. M., & Schwarz, M. P. (2003). Taxonomic description of allodapine bees from the Zanzibar archipelago, genus Macrogalea (Hymenoptera: Apidae). African Entomology, 11(2), 199-203. Scopus1 WoS1 |
| 2002 | Tierney, S. M., Schwarz, M. P., Neville, T., & Schwarz, P. M. (2002). Sociality in the phylogenetically basal allodapine bee genus Macrogalea (Apidae: Xylocopinae): Implications for social evolution in the tribe Allodapini. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 76(2), 211-224. Scopus30 WoS31 Europe PMC9 |
| 2000 | Tierney, S. M., Cronin, A. L., Loussert, N., & Schwarz, M. P. (2000). The biology of Brevineura froggatti and phylogenetic conservatism in Australian allodapine bees (Apidae, Allodapini). Insectes Sociaux, 47(1), 96-97. Scopus27 WoS27 |
| 1998 | Neville, T., Schwarz, M. P., & Tierney, S. M. (1998). Biology of a weakly social bee, Exoneura (Exoneurella) setosa (Hymenoptera: Apidae) and implications for social evolution in Australian allodapine bees. Australian Journal of Zoology, 46(3), 221-234. Scopus17 WoS17 |
| 1997 | Tierney, S. M., Schwarz, M. P., & Adams, M. (1997). Social behaviour in an Australian allodapine bee Exoneura (Brevineura) xanthoclypeata (Hymenoptera: Apidae). Australian Journal of Zoology, 45(4), 385-398. Scopus29 WoS29 |
| Year | Citation |
|---|---|
| 2020 | Schwarz, M. P., & Tierney, S. M. (2020). Allodapine Bees. In C. K. Starr (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Social Insects (pp. 1-5). Switzerland: Springer International Publishing. DOI |
| 2009 | Wcislo, W., & Tierney, S. (2009). The evolution of communal behavior in bees and wasps: an alternative to eusociality. In J. Gadau, & J. Fewell (Eds.), Organization of insect societies: from genomes to sociocomplexity (pp. 148-169). USA: Harvard University Press. |
| 2006 | Schwarz, M. P., Tierney, S. M., & Chapman, T. W. (2006). Phylogenetic analyses of life history traits in allodapine bees and social evolution.. In V. E. Kipyatkov (Ed.), Life Cycles of Social Insects: Behaviour, Ecology and Evolution. (pp. 147-155). St. Petersburg: St. Petersburg University Press. |
| 1997 | Neville, T., Schwarz, M. P., & Tierney, S. M. (1997). Life cycle and sociality in an Australian allodapine bee Exoneura (Exoneurella) setosa.. In V. E. Kipyatkov (Ed.), Proceedings of the International Colloquia on Social Insects: Volume 3-4 (pp. 239-246). |
| 1997 | Schwarz, M. P., Bull, N. J., Tierney, S. M., Cronin, A. L., & Reyes, S. G. (1997). Social evolution in Hymenoptera - insights from Australian allodapine bees.. In V. E. Kipyatkov (Ed.), Proceedings of the International Colloquia on Social Insects: Volume 3-4. (pp. 11-18). St. Petersburg: Russian Language Section, International Union for the Study of Social Insects; Socium, St. Petersburg. |
| Year | Citation |
|---|---|
| 2018 | Tierney, S. M., Langille, B., Humphreys, W. F., Austin, A. D., & Cooper, S. J. B. (2018). Massive parallel regression: genetic mechanisms for eye loss amongst subterranean diving beetles. Poster session presented at the meeting of INTEGRATIVE AND COMPARATIVE BIOLOGY. CA, San Francisco: OXFORD UNIV PRESS INC. |
| Year | Citation |
|---|---|
| 2015 | Tierney, S. (2015). International Pint of Science Festival 2015 - Adelaide (No. Of Pieces: Two evening events) [Exhibition]. http://pintofscience.com.au/events/adelaide/. |
| 2014 | Tierney, S. M. (2014). The Bees Knees: The importance of pollinators and their recent decline (No. Of Pieces: Seminar) [Exhibition]. Science in the Pub Adelaide. |
| Year | Citation |
|---|---|
| 2015 | Tierney, S. M. (2015). What blind beetles can teach us about evolution. The Conversation. |
| Date | Role | Research Topic | Program | Degree Type | Student Load | Student Name |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 - 2020 | Co-Supervisor | Regressive Evolution of Vision and Speciation in the Subterranean Diving Beetles from Western Australia | Doctor of Philosophy | Doctorate | Full Time | Ms Barbara Langille |
| 2014 - 2019 | Co-Supervisor | The systematics and biogeographic history of Australian arid zone oniscidean isopods (Philosciidae) | Doctor of Philosophy | Doctorate | Full Time | Dr Danielle Nicole Stringer |
