The J Lab
Group Leader: Dr Michael Jennions

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Current Group
Michael Jennions
Jennie Mallela (Post-doc)
Martin Edvardsson (Visit Fellow)
Crystal Vincent (Visit Fellow)
Richard Milner (PhD Student)
Isobel Booksmythe (PhD student)
Sophie Callander (PhD Student)
Andrew Kahn (PhD Student)
Dominique Roche (PhD Student)
Jonathan Henshaw (Hons student)
James Davies (Research Officer)

Recent Members
Megan Higgie (Post-doc)
Clint Kelly (Post-doc)
Fleur de Crespigny (Visit. Fellow)
Jean Drayton(PhD student)
Brian Mautz (PhD Student)
Bob Wong (PhD Student)
J.E. (Kobus) Boeke (Msc)
Michelle Shackleton (Msc)

Jules Livingston (Hons Student)
Fredrick Hayes (Hons Student)
Jessica Bolton (HonsStudent)
Leah Bala (Hons Student)
Katie Humphrey (Hons Student)

Contact

Evolution, Ecology & Genetics Research School of Biology
Australian National University,
Canberra, ACT 0200,
Australia
Email

External Collaborators

Isobel Booksmythe                                  

Email me
 

Background

In 2007-8 I completed my Honours at the ANU with my main supervisor as Patricia Backwell.   I started a PhD in 2008 with my main supervisor as Patricia Backwell and co-supervision by Michael Jennions. In late 2008 we spent three months doing fieldwork on fiddler crabs in Mozambique. We then did a field season  in Darwin till the end of 2008.   We did another full season in Darwin in 2009.

In 2010 we  headed off to Zanzibar to work on another species of fiddler crab. We completed several projects that have now being written up. Meanwhile, I went back in Darwin to complete the 2010 crab field season.

I also received an ASSAB grant to work on mate choice in mosquitofish in 2011.  I completed this project in Canberra. I am currently writing it up, along with a final large set of experiments on fiddler crabs. In 2012 I will start a mini-post doc working for Michael making terminal measurements on artificially selected lines of Gambusia. I will also be collaborating with Brian Mautz on a meta-analysis.

NEWS: Superstitious? PhD Thesis was submitted on Friday 13th, 2012. The thesis consists of Papers 3-6, 8 and 9 (see below).

Publications

9. Booksmythe I, Hayes C, Jennions MD, Backwell PRY. 2012. The effects of neighbor familiarity and size on cooperative defense of fiddler crab territories. Behavioural Ecology (in press) [PDF of online version]

8. Booksmythe I, Jennions MD, Backwell PRY. 2011. Male fiddler crabs prefer conspecific females during simultaneous, but not sequential, mate choice. Animal Behaviour 81:775-778  [PDF]

7. Booksmythe I, Kokko H, Jennions MD. 2010. Sexual selection: the weevils of inbreeding. Current Biology 20: R672-R673 [PDF]

6. Booksmythe I, Jennions MD, Backwell PRY. 2010. Interspecific assistance: fiddler crabs help heterospecific neighbours in territory defence. Biology Letters 6: 748-750 [PDF]

5. Milner RNC, Booksmythe I, Jennions MD, Backwell PRY. 2010. The battle of the sexes? Territory acquisition and defence in male and female fiddler crabs. Animal Behaviour 79:735-738  [PDF]

4. Booksmythe I, Jennions MD, Backwell PRY. 2010. Investigating the 'dear enemy' phenomenon in the territory defence of the fiddler crab, Uca mjoebergi . Animal Behaviour 79:419-423 [PDF]

3. Booksmythe I, Milner RNC, Jennions MD, Backwell PRY. 2010. How do weaponless male fiddler crabs avoid aggression?  Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology 64:485-491   [PDF]

2. Booksmythe I, Detto T, Backwell PRY. 2008. Female fiddler crabs settle for less: the travel costs of mate choice. Animal Behaviour 76:1775-1781 [PDF]

1.  Booksmythe I, Detto T, Backwell PRY. 2008. A field guide to the fiddler crabs of East Point Reserve, Darwin, Northern Territory. Northern Territory Naturalist 20:26-33 [PDF]

Contact

Email:  isobel.booksmythe@anu.edu.au

Photos from Inhaca (Mozambique, 2008) Click thumbnails for full size pictures

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