Welcome to the site of the Laboratory of Entomology. The laboratory studies ants, bees and wasps, collectively known as the "social insects". Social insects are truly fascinating. They live in highly complex, well-organised societies, yet rely almost exclusively on chemical communication. What pheromone signals do they use to achieve this high level of organisation? What are the sites of production of these pheromones? And what adaptations are present in the morphology of the exocrine system to allow this pheromonal communication? These are among the questions that we study.

Social insects also present important evolutionary problems. The workers usually forego most of their own reproduction, and direct all their energy to helping their mother queen reproduce. How can such self-sacrificial behaviour evolve? And how are conflicts resolved among society members? Such evolutionary questions are also being studied in our lab. Ultimately, the aim of our lab is to study social insects in all their aspects: behaviour, evolution, chemical ecology, morphology, etc...