Social learning and innovation in guppies and humans
I am interested in social learning and its consequences for the behaviour
and evolution of animals. Currently, I am researching how guppies and humans balance social and personal information in environments of varying uncertainty. This work is being conducted with Simon Reader and Ulf Toelch at Utrecht University.
Web decorations in orb-web spiders
Web decorations are curious silk structures included in their webs by many species of orb-web spider. May functions have been proposed for these structures including thermoregulation, web stabilisation, prey capture and defense against predators. Most recent studies have suggested that decorations perform a visual function by either attracting prey or protecting the spider. This work is ongoing in the the Behavioural Ecology lab at Macquarie University. Read more about web decorations here.
Other research I have a number of other research interests including the phylogeny of spiders in the genus Argiope and the evolution of sexual size dimorphism in orb-web spiders (collaborating with Mike Kasumovic at the University of Toronto).
