Prof Lars Chittka

Lars Chittka
FRES, FRSB, FLS, Dr. habil.

Professor of Sensory and Behavioural Ecology

School of Biological and Behavioural Sciences
Queen Mary University of London
020 7882 3043
chittkalab.sbcs.qmul.ac.uk/
Centre for Brain and Behaviour
Centre for Biodiversity and Sustainability
ResearcherID ORCID Google Scholar X

Research

animal cognition, sensory systems, pollination ecology, social insects, animal consciousness, animal welfare

Interests

Work in the Chittka lab is poised at the intersection between sensory physiology and learning psychology on the one hand, and evolutionary ecology on the other. Why do animals have the sensory systems they do? How do they use them in their natural foraging environment? How do cognitive-behavioural processes function in the economy of nature? Pollinator-plant interactions have been used as a model system to study these questions. Bees have been the organisms of choice in most of these studies, because their colonies can be easily kept, their experience can be readily controlled, they have a rich behavioural repertoire and amazing learning capacities. Members of the team have been particularly interested in mutual evolutionary and ecological influences of insect colour vision and flower colour signals, and insect learning and flower advertising. In addition, they have studied bee navigation, including the question of how bees use spatial memory to navigate among several rewarded sites. Recently, Chittka has also become interested in the question of consciousness in insects and its welfare implications. Work in the Chittka lab has made use of field studies, as well as experimental studies with computer-controlled behavioural tests, computer simulations, and phylogenetic analyses.