Animal Behaviour, Applied Entomology Arachnology, Behavioural Ecology, Biomimetics, Comparative Biomechanics, Comparative Physiology, Invertebrate Zoology, Subterranean Biology

My research focuses on how behaviour in invertebrates, primarily orb spiders and their webs, is shaped by internal physiological and external environmental factors. In particular, I am interested in how behaviour in general and behavioural plasticity in particular has evolved to cope with the constraints imposed by a relatively limited brain capacity and with the biomechanical constraints imposed by environemental and morphological factors including silk material properties and the extreme conditions found in caves. The goal is to increase our basic understanding of how small-brained animals use simple decision-making rules to perform complex behaviours. In addition to its intrinsic biological interest, this line of research is of potential interest to designers of biologically inspired robots and other biomimetic technologies.