William Hughes   Email: W.Hughes@sheffield.ac.uk

My research focuses on the behaviour, ecology and evolution of social insects. Their particular biology means that they have a number of advantages as research organisms and makes them excellent model systems for investigating some general problems in behavioural ecology. I am primarily interested in four main areas: 1) Why do females of some species mate with multiple males while others mate only once and what implications does multiple mating have for the society? 2) How do social insect colonies defend themselves against diseases and what are the dynamics of the host-parasite interactions? 3) How do different individuals within a colony allocate themselves to particular tasks and what influence does genetics have on this? 4) How do individuals within a society transmit information to one another and what is the nature and complexity of the messages conveyed?