James Maino
Senior Research Scientist (Predictive Modelling)
Bachelor of Arts with Honours (Mathematic and Environmental Studies), PhD Zoology/Animal Biology
James uses mathematics and computer modelling to develop tools that help us better manage some of our most notorious crop pests. Recently he assisted in creating a tool to predict the lifecycle events of key broadacre pests based on climate data. James’ work also includes monitoring and predicting the evolution of insecticide resistance in the infamous redlegged earth mite.
James is passionate about food security, environmental sustainability, and biodiversity preservation. His role at Cesar provides him a unique opportunity to apply his expertise at the interface of these pressing issues.
James’ academic contributions have enhanced our predictive power around insect responses to changing environments. James’ accomplishments in this field have been acknowledged by various honours, including the prestigious Elton Prize from the British Ecological Society in 2014, and the Chancellor’s Prize from the University of Melbourne in 2016 for Excellence in the PhD thesis.
In his spare time, James enjoys hiking around Australia’s wide and diverse landscapes, while taking note of the smaller natural wonders that lurk underneath his feet.
James Maino, Elia Pirtle, Peter Ridland, Paul Umina (In review) Forecasting the potential distribution of the invasive vegetable leafminer using ‘top-down’ and ‘bottom-up’ models. bioRxiv.
Virgile Baudrot, Rafael Schouten, Paul Umina, Ary Hoffmann, Lisa Bird, Melina Miles, James Maino (2023) Managing pesticide resistance in Spodoptera frugiperda: A spatially explicit framework for identifying optimal treatment strategies. Ecological Modelling 483: 110416.
James Maino, Joshua Thia, Ary Hoffmann, Paul Umina (2023) Estimating rates of pesticide usage from trends in herbicide, insecticide, and fungicide product registrations. Crop Protection 163: 106125.
James Maino, Elia Pirtle, Virgile Baudrot, Peter Ridland, Paul Umina (2023) Forecasting the potential distribution of invasive leafminer pests, Liriomyza spp. (Diptera: Agromyzidae), and their natural enemies. Austral Entomology 62: 118-130.
Joshua Thia, James Maino, Alicia Kelly, Ary Hoffmann, Paul Umina (2023) Expanding risk predictions of pesticide resistance evolution in arthropod pests with a proxy for selection pressure. Journal of Pest Science 96: 1199-1212.
Paul Umina, James Maino, Owain Edwards, Xuan Cheng, Matthew Binns, Anthony van Rooyen, Sue Song, Andrew Weeks, Aston Arthur, Olivia Reynolds, Ary Hoffmann (2023) Fitness costs of pyrethroid resistance in the polyphagous pest mite, Halotydeus destructor, under field conditions. Journal of Pest Science 97: 185–197.
Paul Umina, Jenny Reidy-Crofts, Owain Edwards, Evatt Chirgwin, Samantha Ward, James Maino, Marielle Babineau (2022) Susceptibility of the Cowpea Aphid (Hemiptera: Aphididae) to widely used insecticides in Australia. Journal of Economic Entomology 115: 143-150.
Evatt Chirgwin, Stuart Kemp, James Maino, Marielle Babineau, Isobel Roberts, Alana Govender, Paul Umina (2022) Beneficial invertebrates of dairy pastures in south-eastern Australia. Crop and Pasture Science 73: 716-731.
James Maino, Rafael Schouten, Jessica Lye, Paul Umina, Olivia Reynolds (2022) Mapping the life-history, development, and survival of spotted lantern fly in occupied and uninvaded ranges. Biological Invasions 24: 2155-2167.
Rafael Schouten, Virgile Baudrot, Paul Umina, James Maino (2022) A working guide to spatial mechanistic modelling in Julia. Methods in Ecology and Evolution 13: 945-954.
Joshua Thia, Xuan Cheng, James Maino, Paul Umina, Ary Hoffmann (2022) Warmer temperatures reduce chemical tolerance in the redlegged earth mite (Halotydeus destructor), an invasive winter‐active pest. Pest Management Science 78: 3071-3079.
Maarten Van Helden, Thomas Heddle, Paul Umina, James Maino (2022) Economic injury levels and dynamic action thresholds for Diuraphis noxia (Hemiptera: Aphididae) in Australian cereal crops. Journal of Economic Entomology 115: 592-601.
Paul Umina, Andrew Weeks, James Maino, Ary Hoffmann, Sue Song, Joshua Thia, Dustin Severtson, Xuan Cheng, Anthony van Rooyen, Aston Arthur (2022) Australian Bryobia mites (Trombidiformes: Tetranychidae) form a complex of cryptic taxa with unique climatic niches and insecticide responses. Pest Management Science 78: 2860-2871.
Elia Pirtle, Anthony van Rooyen, James Maino, Andrew Weeks, Paul Umina (2021) A molecular method for biomonitoring of an exotic plant‐pest: Leafmining for environmental DNA. Molecular Ecology 30: 4913-4925.
Aston Arthur, James Maino, Ary Hoffmann, Moshe Jasper, Alan Lord, Svetlana Micic, Owain Edwards, Anthony van Rooyen, Paul Umina (2021) Learnings from over a decade of increasing pesticide resistance in the redlegged earth mite, Halotydeus destructor (Tucker). Pest Management Science 77: 3013-3024.
Xuan Cheng, Paul Umina, Matthew Binns, James Maino, Amol Ghodke, Ary Hoffmann (2021) Options for managing pesticide resistance in the redlegged earth mite (Halotydeus destructor Tucker): an experimental test involving altered selection pressures and alternative chemicals. Crop and Pasture Science 72: 474-488.
James Maino, Alexander Cushen, Roozbeh Valavi, Paul Umina (2021) Spatial variation in Australian neonicotinoid usage and priorities for resistance monitoring. Journal of Economic Entomology 114: 2524-2533.
James Maino, Ary Hoffmann, Matthew Binns, Xuan Cheng, Anthony van Rooyen, Paul Umina (2021) Strip spraying delays pyrethroid resistance in the redlegged earth mite, Halotydeus destructor: A novel refuge strategy. Pest Management Science 77: 4572-4582.
James Maino, Rafael Schouten, Kathy Overton, Roger Day, Sunday Ekesi, Bosibori Bett, Madeleine Barton, Peter Gregg, Paul Umina, Olivia Reynolds (2021) Regional and seasonal activity predictions for fall armyworm in Australia. Current Research in Insect Science 1: 100010.
Michael Ørsted, Jessica Lye, Paul Umina, James Maino (2021) Global analysis of the seasonal abundance of the invasive pest Drosophila suzukii reveal temperature extremes determine population activity potential. Pest Management Science 77: 4555-4563.
Kathy Overton, James Maino, Roger Day, Paul Umina, Bosibori Bett, Daniela Carnovale, Sunday Ekesi, Robert Meagher, Olivia Reynolds (2021) Global crop impacts, yield losses and action thresholds for fall armyworm (Spodoptera frugiperda): A review. Crop Protection 145: 105641.
Elia Pirtle, Paul Umina, Cindy Hauser, James Maino (2021) Using mock surveillance to quantify pest detectability prior to establishment of exotic leafminers. Crop Protection 148: 105713.
Paul Umina, Stuart Kemp, Marielle Babineau, James Maino, Isobel Roberts, Alana Govender, Garrick McDonald, Alison Popay, David Hume, Scott Hardwick, Nicola Richards, Olivia Reynolds, Evatt Chirgwin (2021) Pests of Australian dairy pastures: Distribution, seasonality and potential impacts on pasture production. Austral Entomology 60: 763-781.
James Maino, Rafael Schouten, Paul Umina (2021) Predicting the global invasion of Drosophila suzukii to improve Australian biosecurity preparedness. Journal of Applied Ecology 58: 789-800.
Lisa Kirkland, James Maino, Oliver Stuart, Paul Umina (2020) Ontogeny in the European earwig (Forficula auricularia) and grain crops interact to exacerbate feeding damage risk. Journal of Applied Entomology 144: 605-615.
Paul Umina, Jenny Reidy‐Crofts, Marielle Babineau, James Maino, Owain Edwards (2020) Susceptibility of the bird cherry‐oat aphid, Rhopalosiphum padi (Hemiptera: Aphididae), to four insecticides. Austral Entomology 59: 838-844.
Xuan Cheng, Ary Hoffmann, James Maino, Paul Umina (2019) Summer diapause intensity influenced by parental and offspring environmental conditions in the pest mite, Halotydeus destructor. Journal of Insect Physiology 114: 92-99.
James Maino, Michael Renton, Ary Hoffmann, Paul Umina (2019) Field margins provide a refuge for pest genes beneficial to resistance management. Journal of Pest Science 92: 1017-1026.
Paul Umina, Garrick McDonald, James Maino, Owain Edwards, Ary Hoffmann (2019) Escalating insecticide resistance in Australian grain pests: Contributing factors, industry trends and management opportunities. Pest Management Science 75: 1494-1506.
Paul Umina, Aston Arthur, Mathew Binns, James Maino (2019) A method to investigate neonicotinoid resistance in mites. Experimental and Applied Acarology 79: 345-357.
Xuan Cheng, Ary Hoffmann, James Maino, Paul Umina (2018) A cryptic diapause strategy in Halotydeus destructor (Tucker) (Trombidiformes: Penthaleidae) induced by multiple cues. Pest Management Science 74: 2618-2625.
Xuan Cheng, Ary Hoffmann, James Maino, Paul Umina (2018) Back Cover: Cover Image, Volume 74, Issue 11. Pest Management Science 74: ii-ii.
James Maino, Matthew Binns, Paul Umina (2018) No longer a west-side story: Pesticide resistance discovered in the eastern range of a major Australian crop pest, Halotydeus destructor (Acari: Penthaleidae). Crop and Pasture Science 69: 216-221.
James Maino, Paul Umina, Ary Hoffmann (2018) Climate contributes to the evolution of pesticide resistance. Global Ecology and Biogeography 27: 223-232.
Michael Kearney, James Maino (2018) Can next-generation soil data products improve soil moisture modelling at the continental scale? An assessment using a new microclimate package for the R programming environment. Journal of Hydrology 561: 662-673.
James Maino, Michael Kearney (2017) The universality of the von Bertalanffy growth curve: Comment on: “Physics of metabolic organization” by Marko Jusup et al. Physics of Life Reviews 20: 63-5.
James Maino, Elia Pirtle, Michael Kearney (2017) The effect of egg size on hatch time and metabolic rate: Theoretical and empirical insights on developing insect embryos. Functional Ecology 31: 227-234.
James Maino, Jacinta Kong, Ary Hoffmann, Madeleine Barton, Michael Kearney (2016) Mechanistic models for predicting insect responses to climate change. Current Opinion in Insect Science 17: 81-86.
Ana Llandres, Gonçalo Marques, James Maino, Salm Kooijman, Michael Kearney, Jérôme Casas (2015) A dynamic energy budget for the whole life‐cycle of holometabolous insects. Ecological Monographs 85: 353-371.
James Maino, Michael Kearney (2015) Testing mechanistic models of growth in insects. Proceedings B 282: 20151973.
James Maino, Michael Kearney (2015) Ontogenetic and interspecific scaling of consumption in insects. Oikos 124: 1564-1570.
James Maino, Michael Kearney (2014) Ontogenetic and interspecific metabolic scaling in insects. The American Naturalist 184: 695-701.
James Maino, Michael Kearney, Roger Nisbet, Sebastiaan Alm Kooijman (2014) Reconciling theories for metabolic scaling. Journal of Animal Ecology 83: 20-29.