This year I have started a part-time position as fellowship advisor for the Daphne Jackson Trust based at the University of Surrey in Guildford.

The Daphne Jackson Trust offers fellowship to people with a background in a STEM field, who wishes to return to active research after a longer career break for family obligations or health reasons.

My job includes among other things to assess and advise prospective and current fellows on the retraining and research aspects of their fellowships.

I have been offered and accepted a part-time position (0.2 FTE) as Director of Studies for Biological Sciences at the Oxford University Department for Continuing Education.

The main responsibilities include to organise and oversee the teaching of biological courses in the public programme at the department, i.e. evening classes and weekend day schools. In addition I help and supervise the part-time tutors that teach biology.

This Friday the 2nd of December, the Danish weekly engineering magazine 'Ingeniøren' published an article written by me about the use of advanced engineering technology (i.e. uni-axial tensile tests and finite element methods) in the study of orb webs and their constituent silks.

Read the article (in Danish) entitled 'Avancerede modeller kaster nyt lys på edderkoppens spind' here.

An undergraduate student that I supervised for his Final Honours School Research project managed to get his project on the effects of wind on predatory behaviour in orb web spiders published as a short article in Naturwissenschaften.

Abstract:
Wind has previously been shown to influence the location and orientation of spider web sites and also the geometry and material composition of constructed orb webs. We now show that wind also influences components of prey-catching behaviour within the web. A small wind tunnel was used to generate different wind speeds. Araneus diadematus ran more slowly towards entangled Drosophila melanogaster in windy conditions, which took less time to escape the web. This indicates a lower capture probability and a diminished overall predation efficiency for spiders at higher wind speeds. We conclude that spiders’ behaviour of taking down their webs as wind speed increases may therefore not be a response only to possible web damage.

Turner, J., Vollrath, F. and Hesselberg, T. (2011). Wind speed affects prey-catching behaviour in an orb web spider. Naturwissenschaften 98, 1063-1067.
DOI: 10.1007/s00114-011-0854-4

I have been granted research associate status at the Department of Zoology at the University of Oxford for two years commencing on the 1st of October 2011.

This status allows me continued access to the University's email and online resources as well as access to office and laboratory space and thus it allows me to continue doing research at a low level, supervising students and give tutorials to undergraduates in the department.

Through the Department for Continuing Education at the University of Oxford, I am offering a 10 week course on animal behaviour in Oxford running from January to March 2012.

The course is meant as an introduction to animal behaviour for all interested members of the general public. No prior knowledge is required.

The course covers a wide range of behaviours, while at the same time giving a comprehensive introduction to evolutionary thinking. During the course, examples from a broad range of animal groups ranging from social behaviours in ants, to tool use in crows and chimpanzees, through to animal personalities and attention in dogs and other pets will be introduced. We will examine how these behaviours are shaped by evolution and linked throughout the various animal groups.

The course starts on the 17th of January 2012 and cost £150

You can read more on the course and enrol for it here.

My two-year Intra-European Marie Curie Fellowship for Career Development has now come to an end and I am therefore no longer a postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Zoology at the University of Oxford.

However, I will for the foreseeable future continue to analyse and write up the results that has arisen from the project while also working as a part-time tutor (in statistics and animal behaviour) for the Department for Continuing Education at the University of Oxford.

Puente Biológico is a newly relaunched general biological journal from Panama. The journal, the first peer-reviewed scientific journal in Panama, is published by the Universidad Autónoma de Chiriqui and supported by the Secretaría Nacional de Ciencia, Tecnología e Innovacion (SENACYT).

Although still fledging and struggling with attracting authors and reviwers not affiliated with Universidad Nacional de Chiriqui, Puente Biológico has a professional set-up, accepts manuscripts in both English and Spanish and aims at three issues per year.

In the latest issue I have authored a small scientific article in Spanish that described the willingness to build webs in the laboratory in a range of orb-weavers (contact me for a pdf copy).

Hesselberg,T. 2010. Notas sobre la capacidad de construir telas orbiculares en el laboratorio por arañas neotropicales. Puente Biológico 3: 101-109.

RESUMEN
La tela orbicular es uno de los más impresionantes ejemplos de ingeniería encontrados en la naturaleza, especialmente cuando se toma en cuenta los diminutos cerebros que tienen las arañas. Su estructura bidimensional y su estatus semipermanente como registro del comportamiento de forrajeo, han resultado en muchos estudios científicos sobre las arañas tejedoras. Sin embargo, sorprendentemente solo pocas especies han sido investigadas en el laboratorio, donde estudios detallados sobre la geometría de la tela y el comportamiento de construcción, son más fáciles de estudiar que en el campo. Aquí describo la capacidad de 15 arañas de tela orbicular de seis familias, de construir telas en condiciones artificiales, e investigué en mayor detalle la frecuencia de construcción de telas en tres de esas especies; Cyclosa caroli, Eustala illicita y Nephila clavipes. Finalmente, basado en los resultados, sugiero que los Symphatognathidae, Philoponella republicana e E. illicita son adaptables para estudios futuros en laboratorio sobre el comportamiento de construcción de telas orbiculares y la geometría de éstas.

ABSTRACT
The orb web is one of the most impressive examples of engineering found in nature, especially when considering the tiny brains of their creators. The webs’ two-dimensional structure and their role as semi-permanent records of foraging behaviour have made the web-building spiders a focus of numerous studies. However, somewhat surprisingly only a limited number of species have been investigated in the laboratory, where detailed studies of web-geometry and web-building behaviour are significantly easier than in the field. Here I tested the ability of 15 orb spiders from six families to build webs under artificial conditions in the laboratory and investigated the web-building frequency in more detail for three of these species; Cyclosa caroli, Eustala illicita and Nephila clavipes. Finally, based on the result of this study, I suggest that symphytognaths, Philoponella republicana and E. illicita in particular would be well-suited for future laboratory based studies on web-building behaviour and orb-web geometry.

The research behind my recent publication in ethology has been featured on Smithsonianscience.org, a website that disseminate some of the interesting research occuring within the umbrella of the Smithsonian Institution.

Read the article here

I have a paper in the May issue of Ethology entitled 'Ontogenetic changes in web design in two orb-web spiders'. Note that there is a mistake in the affiliation (due to a misunderstanding the address was changed by the journal during production). Although it says University of Oxford, the work was actually done while I was a postdoc at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute.

Hesselberg, T. (2010). Ontogenetic changes in web design in two orb-web spiders. Ethology 116: 535-545.

The paper can be accessed here if you have an institutional licence. If not you are welcome to contact me for a copy.

Abstract
The first orb web built by newly hatched spiders resembles the adult web in its overall form and structure. However, many details show ontogenetic changes. One possible explanation for these changes is that the tiny early-instar spiders with their minute brains will make more mistakes and build less ‘perfect’ orb webs than older and larger juveniles and adults. To test this hypothesis, known as the size limitation hypothesis, I analysed orb webs from three developmental stages, spiderlings, juveniles and adult females, in two neotropical orb-web spiders, the araneid Eustala illicita and the nephilid Nephila clavipes. Neither species showed clear signs of being behaviourally limited or more prone to committing errors as spiderlings than were older juveniles or adults. These findings therefore do not support the size limitation hypothesis in either species. Finally, I looked for evidence of the ‘biogenetic law’, which predicts that juveniles should build less derived orb webs than the adults. Evidence for this was found in E. illicita, but not in N. clavipes.

Resumen
La primera telaraña orbicular construida por arañas recién salidas del huevo se parece a la tela de una araña adulta en su forma general y estructura. Sin embargo, muchos detalles muestran cambios genéticos. Una posible explicación para estos cambios es que las diminutas arañas con sus pequeños cerebros tendrían mayores errores y construirían telarañas orbiculares menos “perfectas” que arañas jóvenes y adultas, más viejas y largas. Para probar esta hipótesis, conocida como la hipótesis de limitación de tamaño, analice telarañas orbiculares de tres etapas de desarrollo, bebe, jóvenes y hembras adultas; en dos arañas orbiculares neo-tropicales, la araneid Eustala illicita y la nephilid Nephila clavipes. Ninguna especie mostro signos claros de conducta limitada o mas prono a cometer errores cuando bebe que cuando son jóvenes mayores o adultos. Estos resultados por lo tanto no apoyan la hipótesis de limitación de tamaño en cualquier especie. Por último, busque evidencia de la “la ley de biogenética”, que predice que las jóvenes deberían construir menos derivadas telarañas orbiculares que los adultos. Evidencia de lo anterior fue encontrada en E. illicita, pero no en N. clavipes.