Animal behaviour research

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Regular and reliable access to an enormous diversity of tropical fauna provides enormous opportunities for studying a wide range of fundamental behaviour questions on 'new' subjects. Work on animal behaviour concentrates on social interactions in insects (dragonflies, social wasps, ants), reptiles (geckos and agamids) and birds, and on predatory and defensive behaviours in insects and arachnids. A major piece of work has recently been completed on social spiders.

Current staff: Richard Rowe, Simon Robson, Ross Crozier

Current Projects in Animal Behaviour

Agonistic behaviour in Zygoptera larvae - phylogenetic patterns, present processes, ontogeny of behaviour (Rowe)

Predatory versatility in Odonata larvae and Hemiptera, with preliminary studies on Scorpiones, Chilopoda and Onychophora (Rowe)

Predatory and defensive behaviours in spiders (Rowe in collaboration with Robert Jackson)

Colony foundation and interactions on nests in four species of Ropalidia (Polistinae) (Rowe, Robson, Crozier in collaboration with Y. Ito)

Evolution and organisation of cooperative nest-weaving in the ant genus Polyrhachis (Robson)

Theory of the evolution of social behavior, especially wrt relatedness and the evolution of eusociality. (Crozier)

Molecular ecological approaches to population and colony structure with especial interest in what these tell us about the forces shaping behavior (Crozier)

Molecular genetic dissection of behavior, e.g., the honeybee dance language (Crozier)

Mating systems in Cisticolas (Lewis - PhD [Pearson])

Behavioural ecology of forest dragons (Torr - PhD [Alford])

Recent work:

Mike Downes, 1992 The life history and behaviour of the subsocial amaurobioid spider Badumna candida. unpubl. PhD thesis, James Cook University of North Queensland

Mellissa Brown, 1995 Communication and social interactions in geckos (hons [Rowe, Alford])

Bill Smith, 1996 Acoustic signalling and sexual selection in the mating system of Litoria xanthomera (a rainforest frog) (hons [Rowe, Hero])

Rachel Allen 1998 (U of Melbourne) spider-ant interactions (PhD [Elgar])

Sea Rotmann, 1998 Behavioural aspects of the symbiosis between free-living corals and sipunculid worms (hons [Rowe, Tanner])

Adam Felton, 1999 Determinants of male mating success in the microhylid frog Cophixalus ornatus (hons [Alford, Schwarzkopf])

Olivia Haine, 1999 New techniques in the study of electrosense and their application to tropical elasmobranchs (hons [Rowe, Jones, Ridd])

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