Dr Rolf Oberprieler

Rolf Oberprieler obtained a M.Sc. degree from the University of Pretoria in South Africa in 1986 and a Ph.D. from the University of the Free State in 1996, both on the systematics of weevils. From 1981 to 1997 he was researcher and Curator of Coleoptera at the South African National Collection of Insects of the Plant Protection Research Institute in Pretoria, and since 1997 he has been the Zimmerman Fellow for weevil systematics at the Australian National Insect Collection.
Dr. Oberprieler principal research interests lie in the systematics and phylogeny of weevils (superfamily Curculionoidea). His recent research involved the authoring and co-authoring of several chapters on weevils for the 3rd Coleoptera volume of the Handbook of Zoology and the compilation of a comprehensive catalogue of all Australian weevils (with Kim Pullen and Debbie Jennings), both published in 2014. He is currently completing another volume of the AUSTRALIAN WEEVILS monograph series begun by E. C. Zimmerman in 1991, dealing with the huge and agriculturally important subfamily Entiminae. He is also a senior adviser and collaborator on the 1K Weevils Project (1000 Curculionidae Phylogeny & Evolution) centred at the University of Memphis (in Prof. Duane McKenna’s lab) and funded by the National Science Foundation in the U.S.A. This ambitious project aims at establishing the phylogeny and classification of the huge and taxonomically complex family Curculionidae, which is also well represented in Australia.
Dr. Oberprieler continues to work with Dr. Sara Pinzon-Navarro, who recently completed a postdoctoral study of the seed-feeding weevil genus Melanterius at the Australian National Insect Collection, to publish the results from her research, and he collaborates with a number of other colleagues on smaller projects as arise from time to time from applied research fields, e.g. forestry (the Gonipterus scutellatus complex) and biosecurity (Hypomeces), or from student projects involving weevils (e.g. leaf-miners).
Rolf also has an interest in weevil fossils and has participated for a number of years in the excavation and discovery of the insect fauna of the Late Jurassic Talbragar Fish Bed in N.S.W., on which he has published two papers to date and assisted on several others.