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Insect vision and allometry

Mar 2019- Sept 2022; Post-doc research 

 

Fruit flies, Drosophila melanogaster, prefer activity over a limited range of light intensities in the wild, but lab-reared flies are often tested only in bright light. Similarly, scarce feeding during larval stages, common in nature, generates smaller adults, and a wide range of eye sizes not found in well-fed lab colonies. Both dimmer light and smaller eyes limit light capture and have undetermined effects on visual behaviors such as flight. I investigated vision and visual behaviors in fruit flies at the limits of low light and small eye size.

 

 

 

 

 

Size variation in fruit flies. Currea et al., 2018

Implications of miniaturisation on vision and visual navigation in ants

October 2015- October 2018; Ph.D. awarded in Feb 2019

 

The evolution of small body size is a common phenomenon called miniaturisation. It has dramatic effects on the morphology, neurobiology, and physiology of the animal. But, the behavioural cost of miniaturisation has largely remained unexplored. Ants have been a great system to test this as they face similar navigational challenges irrespective of their body size. I investigated how miniaturisation affects vision and visual navigation abilities in ants. I used electrophysiology, histology, and field observations to answer questions on ant vision and visual navigation.

Photo credits: Ajay Narendra                                                                              

Mate and non-nestmate recognition in the primitively eusocial wasp, Ropalidia marginata.
August 2014- March 2015; Masters thesis project

 

We studied how male and female wasps differ in cuticular hydrocarbons and whether they can recognize each other from a long distance based on their cuticular hydrocarbon smell. 

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Photo credits: Thresiamma Varghese

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