Simon is a PhD candidate researching New Zealand nursery web/fishing spiders. His work focuses on mating behaviour, monogyny, evolution and introgression.
Masters students
Grant Fale
Grant is a MSc student at the University of Waikato as well as a member of the Productive Biodiversity & Pollination team at Plant and Food Research NZ. He is interested in 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.
Renee Devenish
Renee is a MSc student at the University of Waikato. She is studying the functional relationship between behaviour and metabolism under rising temperatures in native bees and honeybees in New Zealand. Her supervisors are Chrissie Painting and Andrew Barnes. Eco Div Lab
Michaela Lambert
Michaela is a MSc student at the University of Waikato looking at sperm dynamics in New Zealand giraffe weevils. She loves all invertebrates, no matter how leggy or bizarre!
Brody Chapman
Brody is a MSc student at the University of Waikato. His research involves the behavioural ecology of peripatus/ngaokeoke in the Waikato region, particularly in the way that forest fragmentation and edge environments affects distribution.
Lara Mills
Lara is a MSc student at University of Waikato looking at assessment strategies of invertebrates in male contests. She is interested in all things animal behaviour and physiology.
Joseph McCormick
Joseph is doing his MSc at the University of Sydney supervised by Tanya Latty & Tom White, but is based at the University of Waikato where he is advised by Chrissie. His research focuses on information transfer dynamics in social insects.
Past PhD students
Erin Powell
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.
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.
