Wild Ecology and Behaviour group
University of Hull, UK
Insect ecology, evolution, behaviour, nutrition.
October 2025: Summer success! Read the latest on the field and lab experiments from the bee project on our grant website.
October 2025: Congrats to Matthew and Jamie for presenting their work at Ento25, the Royal Entomological Society's annual conference in Glasgow! Read more about their experience here
October 2025: New paper in press at Proceedings B! Gilbert et al. 2025. Internet images reveal bumblebee-mimicking hoverflies follow models in preferring blue flowers, but retain the typical hoverfly attraction to yellow. Find the preprint here, and more details in my Bluesky post, here.
September 2025: New coauthored paper out! Lindstedt et al. 2025. Maternal care shapes an aposematic display and provides lifelong protection against predators. Behavioural Ecology 36(5).
September 2025: Welcome to MSc student Will Hurst, who starts a MSc in our lab working on stalk-eyed flies - a new organism for our group! See people for details.
Latest news
People
Researchers
James Gilbert
University of Hull
Group leader
Behavioural & nutritional ecology, Macroevolution, Parental care and social behaviour, Insect Biology
Elisa Gomes
University of Hull
Postdoctoral Research Associate
Climate change, Bee ecology and nutrition
Jamie Smith
University of Hull
University of Lincoln
PhD Researcher
Climate change, Bee ecology and nutrition, Transcriptomics
Matthew Chambers
University of Hull
University of Sussex
PhD Researcher
Climate change, Bee ecology and nutrition
Lais Grossel
University of Hull
Visiting PhD researcher
Parental care evolution, Harvestmen, Neotropical ecology
Alumni
Alex Austin
University of Hull
Kuring-Gai council, Sydney, NSW, Australia
Phd Researcher (Alumnus)
Bee ecology, nutrition and conservation
Yannis Dimopoulos
University of Hull
Phd Researcher (Alumnus)
Macroevolution and behaviour, Comparative biology, Bioinformatics
Caitlin Flynn
University of Hull
MSc Researcher (Alumna)
Macroevolution and behaviour, Comparative biology, Bioinformatics
Charlotte Howard
University of Hull
University of Reading
MSc Researcher (Alumna)
Nutritional ecology, Pollinator management
Fiona Tainsh
University of Hull
University of Warwick
MSc Researcher (Alumna)
Bee ecology and nutrition, Pollinator management
Projects
Recent Publications
Quickly discover relevant content by filtering publications.
(2025).
Maternal care shapes an aposematic display and provides lifelong protection against predators.
Behav. Ecol. 36(5):https://doi.org/10.1093/beheco/araf116.
(2025).
Monitoring terrestrial rewilding with environmental DNA metabarcoding: a systematic review of current trends and recommendations.
Front. Conserv. Sci. 5(2024):https://doi.org/10.3389/fcosc.2024.1473957.
(2024).
Investigating the role of non-helpers in group-living thrips.
J. Anim. Ecol. 93(12):1960-1971..
(2022).
Territorial aggression in male bower-building cichlids Nyassachromis cf. microcephalus is disrupted by exposure to environmental concentrations of fluoxetine.
bioRxiv, pp. 2022.10.25.513719.
(2021).
Solitary bee larvae prioritize carbohydrate over protein in parentally provided pollen.
Funct. Ecol. 35 (5), 1069-1080.
(2020).
Sporopollenin as a dilution agent in artificial diets for solitary bees.
Apidologie 52, 101–112.
(2019).
Predation drives recurrent convergence of an interspecies mutualism.
Ecology letters, (22), 2, pp. 256–264.
(2019).
Developing a vocabulary and ontology for modeling insect natural history data: example data, use cases, and competency questions.
Biodiversity data journal, (7).
(2019).
Differential effects of farming practice on cuckoo bumblebee communities in relation to their hosts.
bioRxiv, pp. 774406.
(2019).
No division of labour, and subfertile foundresses, in a phyllode-gluing Acacia thrips.
bioRxiv, pp. 755371.
(2019).
Parental care shapes evolution of aposematism and provides lifelong protection against predators.
bioRxiv, pp. 644864.
(2019).
Plugging the hunger gap: Organic farming supports more abundant nutritional resources for bees at critical periods.
bioRxiv, pp. 837625.
(2018).
Skew in ovarian activation depends on domicile size in phyllode-glueing thrips.
Scientific reports, (8), 1, pp. 1–9.
(2017).
Aposematism in the burying beetle? Dual function of anal fluid in parental care and chemical defense.
Behavioral Ecology, (28), 6, pp. 1414–1422.
(2017).
Everything is connected: network thinking in entomology.
Ecological Entomology, (42), S1, pp. 1–3.
(2017).
Larval exposure to field-realistic concentrations of clothianidin has no effect on development rate, over-winter survival or adult metabolic rate in a solitary bee, Osmia bicornis.
PeerJ, (5), pp. e3417.
(2017).
Macroecology of parental care in arthropods: higher mortality risk leads to higher benefits of offspring protection in tropical climates.
Biological reviews, (92), 3, pp. 1688–1701.
(2017).
Male genital titillators and the intensity of post-copulatory sexual selection across bushcrickets.
Behavioral ecology, (28), 5, pp. 1198–1205.
(2015).
Questioning evidence of group selection in spiders.
Nature, (524), 7566, pp. E1–E3.
(2015).
Sex-biased parental care and sexual size dimorphism in a provisioning arthropod.
Behavioral ecology and sociobiology, (69), 12, pp. 1897–1906.
(2015).
The evolution of parental care in insects: a test of current hypotheses.
Evolution, (69), 5, pp. 1255–1270.
(2014).
Functional equivalence of grasping cerci and nuptial food gifts in promoting ejaculate transfer in katydids.
Evolution, (68), 7, pp. 2052–2065.
(2014).
Thrips domiciles protect larvae from desiccation in an arid environment.
Behavioral Ecology, (25), 6, pp. 1338–1346.
(2014).
Cytochrome b divergence between avian sister species is linked to generation length and body mass.
PloS one, (9), 2.
(2013).
GRASP [Genomic Resource Access for Stoichioproteomics]: comparative explorations of the atomic content of 12 Drosophila proteomes.
BMC genomics, (14), 1, pp. 599.
(2013).
Natural history and behaviour of Dunatothrips aneurae Mound (Thysanoptera: Phlaeothripidae), a phyllode-gluing thrips with facultative pleometrosis.
Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, (109), 4, pp. 802–816.
(2013).
Evolution of Parental Care.
OUP.
(2012).
Biology of a new species of socially parasitic thrips (Thysanoptera: Phlaeothripidae) inside Dunatothrips nests, with evolutionary implications for inquilinism in thrips.
Biological journal of the Linnean society, (107), 1, pp. 112–122.
(2011).
Larger testes are associated with a higher level of polyandry, but a smaller ejaculate volume, across bushcricket species (Tettigoniidae).
Biology letters, (7), 2, pp. 261–264.
(2011).
Biological explorations of Sinai: flora and fauna of Wadi Isla and Hebran, St Katherine Protectorate, Egypt.
Egyptian Journal of Natural History, (5), 1, pp. 6–15.
(2011).
Contrasting mechanisms of proteomic nitrogen thrift in Prochlorococcus.
Molecular ecology, (20), 1, pp. 92–104.
(2011).
Insect dry weight: shortcut to a difficult quantity using museum specimens.
Florida entomologist, (94), 4, pp. 964–970.
(2011).
Increased copulation duration before ejaculate transfer is associated with larger spermatophores, and male genital titillators, across bushcricket taxa.
Journal of Evolutionary Biology, (24), 9, pp. 1960–1968.
(2010).
Parental care trade-offs and life-history relationships in insects.
The American Naturalist, (176), 2, pp. 212–226.
(2010).
Quantifying the benefits and costs of parental care in assassin bugs.
Ecological Entomology, (35), 5, pp. 639–651.
(2009).
Brood conspicuousness and clutch viability in male-caring assassin bugs (Rhinocoris tristis).
Ecological Entomology, (34), 2, pp. 176–182.
(2009).
Effects of body size, trophic mode and larval habitat on Diptera stoichiometry: a regional comparison.
Oikos, (118), 4, pp. 615–623.
(2008).
Detritivory: stoichiometry of a neglected trophic level.
Ecological Research. 23: 487-491. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11284-008-0471-7.
(2007).
The evolution of parental care in insects.
University of Cambridge.
(2005).
Food caching by western scrub-jays (Aphelocoma californica) is sensitive to the conditions at recovery..
Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes, (31), 2, pp. 115.
Contact
- james.gilbert@hull.ac.uk
- +44 1482 465486
- Cottingham Road, Hull, Yorkshire HU6 7RX
- @james_gilbert
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