Current research projects

​Social plasticity and the response to selection

We use the sexually dimorphic fruit fly Drosophila prolongata to explore the role of social interactions in evolution. We are interested in understanding how the evolutionary outcome changes when individuals make plastic decisions during social interactions.

Previous research projects

Individual differences in contest behaviour

We used the Mediterranean field cricket (Gryllus bimaculatus) to examine how the environment influences the extent to which individuals differ in their social behaviour.

Competitive interactions and resource abundance

We use the western black widow (Latrodectus hesperus) to explore how individual spiders adjust their foraging behaviour to environmental factors such to the level of intraspecific competition and the availability of prey. Black widows are an excellent system to explore these questions as behavioural responses to conspecifics don't necessarily require direct behavioural interactions: individuals adjust the structure of their web to protect themselves against intruders. This unable me to monitor responses to the level of competition while avoiding direct confrontation between competitors. Black widows also adjust the production of sticky silk (gumfooted threads) that is used to catch prey, which allows me to measure the response to variation in food availability by quantifying the proportion of gumfooted versus structural threads. 

Behavioural plasticity in parent-offspring interactions

In species where adults provide care to their brood, each member of the family often interact closely with other members: parents feed the young; the young beg for more food and might compete with one another for food. Social behaviours are generally plastic traits that reflect an individual's intrinsic state (e.g., hunger, nutritive needs) and are adjusted according to environmental conditions (e.g., food availability, predation risk, environmental hazards). Family members also have to adjust their behaviour depending on the behaviour of others: parents adjust food provisioning to the intensity of begging, the young adjust their begging effort to that of their siblings, parents coordinate their care. Behavioural plasticity is thus a key mechanism allowing each family member to tune its behaviour to best match the ecological and social environment. 

We are specifically studying how flexible behavioural traits shape conflict and cooperation among family members and how an individual's attributes (sex, age, inbreeding, infection status) and the environment (resources, competition, cooperation) influence these plastic responses. We use the burying beetle (Nicrophorus vespilloides) as a study species to address these questions.