General research interests of our lab lie in the fields of ecology, behaviour and evolution of animals, mostly in terrestrial arthropods. Specifically we are interested in how animals that have small brain with few neurons solve the everyday problems that they face within their respective environments. Our research focuses on the area of behavioural ecology, and includes work on animal communication, including social and mating behaviour, predator-prey interactions, especially in aggressive mimicry; evolutionary significance of prey-specific prey-catching and prey-preference behaviour.

A major recent development is a research program concerned with the role of ultraviolet (UV) vision and reflectance in sexual selection and in the evolution of foraging behaviour, with the primary research subjects being jumping spiders. We also have a strong interest in the biodiversity of arthropods in tropical rainforests.

A theme that runs through much of our research has been an interest in understanding how small animals, such as spiders, which have small brains and few neurons compared with mammals and birds, nonetheless manage to solve the challenging problems they often face in day-to-day live in their natural environments. Size constraints can be expected to influence how these animals solve problems, and their limitations. Clarifying the influence of these size constraints is one of my long-term research interests. The lab works mainly with spiders, and work both in the field and the laboratory.