Chittka Lab

Bees have fascinating sensory and behavioural capacities: they can see ultraviolet and polarised light, can learn to navigate precisely over miles, they can learn numbers and sequences of landmarks, and some species even have a symbolic "language".

We study the mechanisms and evolution of the sensory systems and behaviour of a wide variety of bee species. We are especially interested in how vision, olfaction, communication and learning behaviour are tuned to the environment, and how they are used in the economy of nature.

Chittka's team has made fundamental contributions to our understanding of animal cognition and its impact on evolutionary fitness studying bumblebees and honeybees. Their work has shown that individual bees have distinct "personalities", can recognize flowers and human faces, can count, use simple tools, solve problems, and learn by observing others. They may even possess emotion-like states and a form consciousness. The team also examines the ethical dilemmas that arise in conservation and laboratory settings because bees might feel and think.

Chittka Lab also hosts the Floral Reflectance Database (FReD).

Post-doctoral Opportunities

Interested in post-doctoral work? Applications currently invited for Marie-Curie post-doctoral fellowships Please email your CV asap to Lars Chittka.