Does metamorphosis facilitate or constrain adaptation to new environments?

Species with separate juvenile and adult life-stages (e.g. catepillars and butterflies, tadpoles and frogs) make up 80% of the worlds animals. Yet we have virtually no understanding of how having separate life-stages affects the ability of animals to adapt to new environments, including changing climates. Australian leaf beetles are a group that is important for the functioning of forests and woodlands, but in large numbers they can be a pest of eucalypt plantations. This project addresses a critical knowledge gap by studying the evolution of juvenile and adult traits that are important for adapting to different temperatures in Australian leaf beetles. Improved understanding of how thermal traits evolve in animals with multiple life-stages will allow improved predictions of climate change impacts on the distribution and survival of native species and the establishment and spread of fore