People

Group Leader – Chrissie Painting

I’m a Senior Lecturer in Te Aka Mātuatua School of Science at the University of Waikato and a Principal Investigator at Te Pūnaha Matatini (a Centre of Research Excellence in Complex Systems), where I am the incoming lead for the Engagement Community of Inquiry. I’m broadly interested in the evolution and ecology of sexual behaviour in invertebrates and how this links to animal diversity. I am a recent recipient of an inaugural Mana Tūānuku Research Leader Fellowship, and currently funded by a Marsden Fast Start grant to investigate the evolution of monogyny in Dolomedes spiders. I’m also a mum to two young kids, who have inspired my love of community outreach and science communication.

I’d love to hear from you if you’re looking for collaborations or postgraduate opportunities in behavioural ecology, entomology, morphology, or conservation. I’m the Senior Editor for the New Zealand Journal of Zoology and an Associate Editor at  Insect Conservation and Diversity. Please get in touch if you’d like to know more about submitting to these journals, especially if you’re a student or early career researcher. 

You can contact me at chrissie.painting[at]waikato.ac.nz and visit my University profile here.

Bug hunting, one of my favourite things
Giving a talk with my support crew

PhD students

Zita Roithmair

Zita is a PhD student from Austria, with an interest in evolution, reproductive biology and conservation. Zita’s PhD is taking a complex systems approach to study the evolution of monogyny in Dolomedes fishing spiders with Chrissie, Dion O’Neale, Eileen Hebets and Matjaž Kuntner. She aims to gain insights into the relationship between different life-history traits that lead to certain mating strategies using a combination of field work, mating experiments, network analysis and phylogenetic comparative methods.

Lucy Southwell-Hambly

Lucy is a PhD student exploring the the impact of climate change on chemical communication and survival in the New Zealand giraffe weevil. Lucy’s project focusses on variation and plasticity in cuticular hydrocarbons and how these are impacted by both the abiotic and social environment. Lucy’s project is in collaboration with Megan Grainger, Leigh Simmons and Florian Menzel.

Masters students

Cassie Ha

Cassie is an Environmental Science MSc student investigating the ecology and mating strategies of the common garden orb-weaver spider, Socca pustulosa. She’s especially interested in their role in interspecies communities.

Juniper Sprengers-Sanson

Juniper is an MSc student at the University of Waikato investigating the mating behaviour and ecology of Dolomedes fishing spiders in the Waikato.

Caleb Teague

Caleb is an MSc student in the Painting lab interested in what drives species to act they way they do under varying conditions. Caleb is researching the invertebrate communities on the Chatham Islands in relation to black robin conservation. When he’s not doing science he loves being in the bush hiking, mountaineering, or rock climbing.

Chengshuai Hu

Chengshuai is a visiting MSc student from Hubei University. He is exploring the mating systems and ecology of Dolomedes fishing spiders in China, contributing to our broader understanding of mating behaviour evolution in this genus. His primary supervisor is Prof Daiqin Li.

Visitors

Arnaturua Tao

Arna-turua is a teacher from Hamilton East Primary School. She is undertaking her placement for the Science Teaching Leadership Programme at Waikato University. Her upbringing on the Coromandel instilled an innate sense of connection and responsibility to understand and care for the environment. Arna-turua is passionate about working alongside tamariki and weaving Te Ao Māori, Enviro and Science applications and understanding within meaningful contexts. She hopes to lift science engagement and develop a critical awareness through the Nature of Science. This will in turn inspire and guide tamariki in sustainable practices and support their growth in practising kaitiakitanga and conservation.

Past PhD students

Simon Connolly Erin Powell

Simon was a PhD student researching New Zealand nursery web/fishing spiders. His work focused on mating behaviour, monogyny, evolution and introgression.

Erin was a PhD student at the University of Auckland supervised by Greg Holwell, Tony Hickey and Chrissie Painting looking at weaponry and mating behaviour of long legged harvestmen.

Past Masters students

Sarah Hockings & Nicole Haerewa

Sarah (left) was a MSc student at the University of Auckland working on characterising sperm competition and polyandry in the New Zealand giraffe weevil using a combination of field based observations and microsatellite genotyping.
Nicole (right) was a MSc student at the University of Auckland researching geographic variation in sexual selection and the role of heat loss in driving variation in rostrum investment in the New Zealand giraffe weevil.

Rebecca Le Grice

Rebecca did her Masters of Science (with 1st Class Hons) in 2014/2015 with Greg Holwell and I. Bex looked at the competitive assessment strategies (fighting) and lifetime mating success of NZ giraffe weevils.

Joseph McCormick

Joseph is doing his MSc at the University of Sydney supervised by Tanya Latty & Tom White, but was briefly based at in the Invertebrate Behavioural Ecology lab during COVID travel restrictions where he kicked off his experiments. His research focuses on information transfer dynamics in social insects.

Michaela Lambert

Michaela completed a MSc at the University of Waikato looking at sperm dynamics in New Zealand giraffe weevils. She loves all invertebrates, no matter how leggy or bizarre!

Lara Mills

Lara completed a MSc at University of Waikato looking at assessment strategies of invertebrates in male contests. She is interested in all things animal behaviour and physiology.

Brody Chapman

Brody was a MSc student at the University of Waikato. His research involved the behavioural ecology of peripatus/ngaokeoke in the Waikato region, particularly in the way that forest fragmentation and edge environments affects distribution.

Grant Fale

Grant Fale was a MSc student at the University of Waikato. In collaboration with Ashley Mortensen and David Pattemore at Plant and Food Research NZ, Grant investigated the interaction between invasive honey bees and native solitary bees with a particular focus on these interactions when foraging on the commercially valuable mānuka tree.

Erin Steed

Erin was a MSc student at the University of Waikato. In collaboration with Ashley Mortensen at Plant & Food Research, she studied honey bee mating sites (drone congregation areas) and their potential role in predicting varroa mite infestation rates of feral and managed honey bee colonies.

Rene Devenish

Rene Devenish was a MSc student at the University of Waikato. She studied the functional relationship between behaviour and metabolism under rising temperatures in native bees and honeybees in New Zealand with Chrissie Painting and Andrew Barnes. Rene is now a technician at the University of Waikato.

Ashton McDonald

Ashton completed her MSc student at the University of Waikato in 2023. She is interested in ways to reduce the slaughter of bobby calves to give them a life worth living. She investigated the effect of different feed allowances on calve growth weights and their behaviours in collaboration with Chrissie Painting, Karin Schutz (AgResearch), Claire Phy (DairyNZ), and Ina Pinxterhuis (DairyNZ).  

Epernay Carta

Epernay completed her MSc at the University of Waikato in collaboration with Ashley Mortensen at Plant & Food Research. Epernay investigated the effect of colony density on drone production and sperm competition in honey bees.

Tori Budd

Tori was a MSc student at the University of Waikato. Tori is interested in New Zealand glow worm biology, and is investigating the ecology and behaviour with a particular focus on mating dynamics for her project. Tori also works as a ranger for Sanctuary Mountain Maungatautari.

Past Honours students

Wee Huixin Renee

Renee did her Honours with Daiqin Li and Chrissie Painting at the National University of Singapore looking at the function of bright colouration in Orsima ichneumon jumping spiders.

Anna Probert

Anna investigated the ecology and variation of chelicerae size of some pretty amazing harvestmen under supervision of Greg Holwell and Chrissie Painting at the University of Auckland

Daniel Townsend

Daniel looked at sexual selection and weapon allometry in endemic New Zealand harvestmen (Arachnida: Opiliones). He was supervised by Greg Holwell and Chrissie Painting.