Antonino Cusumano is an Associate Professor of Agricultural Entomology at the University of Palermo, Department of Agricultural, Food and Forestry Sciences (SAAF).
In 2006 he graduated in Agricultural Sciences and Technologies, and in 2010 he obtained a PhD in “Eco-compatible Plant Protection Management in Agro-forestry and Urban Environments” at the University of Palermo. Since 2020 he has been working at the University of Palermo, first as a Researcher (RTD-A,B) and then as an Associate Professor (2024–present). He has carried out research periods abroad at Texas A&M University, USA; Wageningen University, The Netherlands – Laboratory of Entomology; INRA – UMR 1333 Insect-Microorganism Diversity, Genomes and Interactions; Lincoln University, New Zealand.
He is Subject Editor for the international journal Oikos (2020–present) and member of the editorial board of Current Opinion in Insect Science (2024–present). In 2014 he received a Marie Curie Post-Doctoral Fellowship and has served as scientific coordinator for international (PRIMA 2021) and national research projects (PRIN 2022).
His main research lines focus on the role of semiochemicals in plant–herbivore–parasitoid interactions and the role of microorganisms in plant–insect interactions. He has published about 75 articles in international journals, as well as book chapters for international publishers.

Alınç T, Peri E, Torta L, Guarino S, Colazza S, Lievens B, Cusumano A (2024). Root inoculation with beneficial soil microbes enhances indirect plant defences induced by insect feeding and egg deposition Functional Ecology 38:1811-1821. https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2435.14594

Colazza S, Peri E, Cusumano A (2023). Chemical Ecology of Floral Resources in Conservation Biological Control. Annual Review of Entomology 68:13-29. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-ento-120220-124357

Cusumano A, Bella P, Peri E, Rostas M, Guarino S, Lievens B, Colazza, S (2023). Nectar-Inhabiting Bacteria Affect Olfactory Responses of an Insect Parasitoid by Altering Nectar Odors. Microbial Ecology 86:364–376. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00248-022-02078-6

Zhu F, Cusumano A, Bloem J, Weldegergis BT, Villela A, van JJA Loon, Dicke M, Harvey JA, Vogel H, Poelman EH (2018). Symbiotic polydnavirus and venom reveal parasitoid to its hyperparasitoids. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 115:5205-5210. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1717904115

Cusumano A, Zhu F, Volkoff AN, Verbaarschot P, Bloem J, Vogel H, Dicke M, Poelman EH (2018). Parasitic wasp-associated symbiont affects plant-mediated species interactions between herbivores. Ecology Letters 21:957-967. https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.12952