Social chemical communication in ants and wasps

Supervisors: Dr Stephen Martin and Professor Roger Butlin

Key words: terrestrial ecosystems: chemical recognition systems; behavioural bioassay

Project Description

Ants and wasps play an integral role in British terrestrial ecosystems, acting as leading predators and scavengers. Due to their numerical dominance, ants and wasps are of interest to conservationists and commonly used as model systems for studying a wide variety of behaviours. The student will investigate the underlying chemical recognition cues used by ants and wasps during species and nest-mate recognition.

Ants are morphologically very similar and the taxonomy of the c. 50 species of British ants remains difficult, with experts (who we work with), needed for their identification. The student will exploit differences in the surface chemicals found on ants to develop a novel taxonomic tool for the majority of UK ant species. In a few selected species, especially the wasps, the student will perform a series of chemical and behavioural (aggression) bioassays to help determine the nest-mate recognition signals.

The student will work closely with a small team chemical ecologists (based at Sheffield) and chemists (based at Keele University), who are currently studying chemical recognition systems in British honeybees and Finnish ants. They will be involved in field collection, chemical analysis of samples and conducting behavioural bioassays (field and laboratory).

Starting date: 1 October 2010.

How to apply: Complete an on-line application form via University of Sheffield web site at http://www.shef.ac.uk/postgraduate/research/apply/index.html. Send a full CV, via email to Mrs S Carter, s.a.carter@sheffield.ac.uk, or a hard copy to Mrs S Carter, Department of Animal and Plant Sciences, University of Sheffield, Sheffield S10 2TN.

Closing date for applications: 31 January 2010.