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Larvae of some flies have the ability to jump—a behaviour that they use to disperse away from their predator-infested feeding substrates.  Remarkably, individual larvae vary enormously in their propensity to jump, and it’s possible that this variation reflects a “personality” trait that carries over into their adult behaviour. For example, individuals that jump more as larvae might be more active or more aggressive as adults. 

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This project will investigate, for the first time, whether individual variation in jumping behaviour of larvae predicts behavioural variation at the adult stage. The project will involve experiments with neriid flies (pictured below), in which the larvae jump during the pre-pupal stage.

Student benefits 

You’ll conduct cutting-edge research on a high-profile question in evolutionary ecology. Through this project, you will learn how to:

• design and carry out experiments
• carry out sophisticated statistical analysis
• write an influential scientific paper.

Honours students in the Bonduriansky lab often publish their work in prestigious journals, such as:

• The American Naturalist
• Functional Ecology
• Animal Behaviour
• Scientific Reports

Supervisor: Prof. Russell Bonduriansky