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Evolutionary Biology Lab

Evolution & Ecology Research Centre and School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of New South Wales

 

Evolutionary theory

Phenotypic plasticity

Non-mendelian and nongenetic inheritance

Sexual selection and conflict

Ageing

 

Russell Bonduriansky - Principal Investigator

Lab News

 

Russell recently attended a meeting on the evolution of genomic imprinting at the National Evolutionary Synthesis Center in the US.

 

Congratulations to Dr Angela Crean on winning an ARC DECRA fellowship and research grant!

 

Congratulations to Eleanor Bath on winning the prestigious Rhodes Scholarship! She will be heading to Oxford University for PhD studies.

 

Congratulations to Margo Adler on winning the Best Talk award at the recent Postgraduate Research Forum!

 

Here's a summary of our lab's

research interests by Wordle.

Click on it to enlarge.

Study Organisms

(Click on the photos for information, pictures and videos)

Neriid flies

Telostylinus angusticollis and T. lineolatus are large, stilt-legged flies that breed in rotting vegetation. These species exhibit pronounced sexual dimorphism in body size and shape.

Neriid male

Piophilid flies

Piophilidae are small carrion flies, most famously represented by the 'cheese skipper' Piophila casei.

One very peculiar species, the 'antler fly' Protopiophila litigata, which is native to Canada, is remarkable for its specialization on discarded cervid antlers, and has become a key model for research on ageing in wild insects. 

Mating antler flies

Another interesting species, Prochyliza xanthostoma, exhibits pronounced sexual dimorphism in body shape, and fascinating sexual behaviours.

Drosophila

We also work with Drosophila from time to time.

 

 

Bruchid beetles

We use the tiny grain beetle Callosobruchus maculatus in research on genetics and genital evolution. The photo on the right shows the spines inside the male aedeagus, which are everted during mating (Photo: Luis Cayetano).

 

Crickets

We have used the Australian black field cricket Teleogryllus commodus to investigate differences between the sexes in the effects of dietary nutrients and in reproductive scheduling, lifespan and ageing in lab and field (Photo: Felix Zajitschek).

 

Individually marked cricket in the wild