Comparative paper on webs of cave and surface Metellina spiders

Last autumn, I was a visiting professor at the University of the Balearic Islands in Mallorca for two months, and while I didn’t find any of the Meta bourneti cave spiders, I originally wanted to study, I did manage to find multiple Metellina merianae spiders in...

New cave spider review paper out

I first became fascinated by the potential behavioural adaptations of the cave spiders in the genus Meta (family Tetragnathidae) back in 2016, which spurred an interest for subterranean biology in general and lead to a student project on Meta menardi in Creswell Crags...

Paper on web asymmetry and web inclination in spider webs

Together with a student, we have a new paper out in the Journal of Arachnology (impressively, it is the second paper arising from Nick Tew’s undergraduate research project – Nick is now a PhD student at Bristol University). The paper looks at the factors...

Co-authored paper on butterfly diversity in Dhaka

I am a co-author on a new paper on the diversity of tropical butterflies in an urban habitat (the mega city of Dhaka in Bangladesh). The paper published in Oriental Insects is based on a meticulous study based on daily surveys of butterflies on the campus of the...

Extension to departmental lectureship

I have been offered an extension to my temporary cover position at the Oxford University for Continuing Education. I will now job share with Dr Jocelyne Hughes as course director for the Postgraduate Certificate in Ecological Survey Techniques for the next 2 years in...