Emily Bell

Position: PhD Student

Project: Phenotypic plasticity and the evolution of castes in eusocial insects

Research Interests: Understanding the evolution of major biological transitions is one of the major challenges in evolutionary biology. The evolution of sociality is one such transition, the peak of which has been reached in organisms with a distinct division of labour, such as the eusocial insects (bees, ants and wasps). In these species some members (“worker castes”) commit to a lifetime of sterility while others remain reproductive (“queen castes”) — an altruistic arrangement in which some individuals sacrifice their own reproductive potential to help raise the offspring of kin.

In advanced eusocial insects (ants, honeybees, some vespid wasps), castes are determined during development, and queen and worker larvae embark on different developmental pathways in response to environmental cues. These species tell us little about the origins of caste evolution, since many of their features are secondarily derived. Simple or primitively eusocial insects, such as paper wasps, have simple behavioural castes (rather than morphological castes) and represent one of the earliest or simplest stages of eusociality, making them ideal models for studying the origins of sociality. Throughout my PhD I exploited the plastic nature of caste roles in primitively eusocial Polistes paper wasps to help understand the evolution of caste differentiation. I worked with two species: the temperate P. dominulus in Spain and the tropical P. canadensis in Panama. See my field blog, A Zoologist Abroad.

Polistes canadensis with a number tag, Colón, Panama.

Biography

2011–present: PhD Candidate, Institute of Zoology and University of Bristol
2013: Pre-doctoral research fellow, Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Panama
2010–2011: MSc in Biology (Integrative Bioscience), University of Oxford
2008–2010: Educational Volunteer, ZSL London Zoo
2007–2010: BSc in Zoology, University College London

Science Outreach: I’m passionate about sharing my love of science with the public, making my work accessible to people of all ages. I helped co-organise Soapbox Science Bristol with Dr Sumner and colleagues at the Institute of Zoology, and co-founded a science outreach venture, Popup Science, with former Sumner group member Chris Wyatt. See my YouTube video “The Life of a Field Biologist”, given to staff and students at Our Lady’s Abingdon School, Oxfordshire, as part of their Culture and Technology series.

Contact: emily.bell@bristol.ac.uk