We are a comparative physiology and behavioral ecology lab using social insects as model systems to study social adaptations to environmental stressors. We are interested in how individual behavioral and physiological phenotypes scale to group strategies, and the adaptiveness of these strategies in different complex environments. Our lab has particular interest in macrophysiological patterns in the form and function of highly social species, particularly as related to the social dynamics of climate adaptation and competition.
19 June 2024- Congratulations to PhD Candidate Karen Robles López on receiving the 2024 Tschinkel Ant Natural History Research Grant from the North American Section of the International Union for the Study of Social Insects! This grant will support her dissertation work exploring the relationship between the army ant Eciton burchellii and the Azteca that forage their middens.
20 April 2024 - Congratulations to Joseph Serio and Haley Schonekas on their posters winning second and third place at the 2024 USM Undergraduate Symposium for Research and Creative Activities!
9 November 2023 - Congratulations to PhD Candidate Karen Robles López on first-authoring a journal article about the complex assemblage of tropical ants that use on army ant dump material! Check it out here in the journal Biotropica!
3 Jul 2023 - Congratulations to PhD student Kristin Robinson on being awarded the Charles Michener Bee Research Grant by the IUSSI-North American Section to support her dissertation work exploring the interplay between division of labor and desiccation tolerance in stingless bees.