Fellowship research. I am currently working on a 3 year Leverhulme Trust funded fellowship “Winter bumblebees: a response to global change?".

The British bumblebee Bombus terrestris audax used to be univoltine, with colonies dying out at the end of the summer and new mated queens undergoing an obligatory diapause period during the winter. However, since the mid 1990’s, queens, workers and males have been observed foraging during the winter. Intriguingly, this apparent dramatic shift in behaviour has coincided with three elements of global environmental change: warmer winters, increased cultivation of winter flowering shrubs (eg. Mahonia shown above) and the introduction of Mediterranean B. terrestris, which naturally has two generations per year, for commercial pollination. Therefore, during my fellowship I am carrying out a detailed study of the winter generation of B. terrestris to determine the mechanisms behind, and consequences of, the major change in its lifecycle.

My work conveniently coincides with a UK-wide survey of winter active bumblebees being carried out by the Bees, Wasps & Ants Recording Society (BWARS). If you would like to get involved please visit the BWARS website for further information. 

Postdoctoral research. I was Reasercher Co-investigator (PI - Lars Chittka) on a 3 year NERC funded project “Quantifying the dynamics of predator avoidance learning: bumblebees as a model”.

Bumblebees visit hundreds or even thousands of flowers each day to collect nectar and pollen. However, visiting flowers can be dangerous as ambush predators such as crab spiders may be encountered. While such encounters can be fatal many bees do manage to escape giving them the opportunity to learn the appearance of their enemies and the location where attack is likely. Indeed, there is evidence that bumblebees do learn to avoid flower patches containing high densities of crab spiders. This project uses the bumblebee-crab spider system to gain a better understanding of how animals learn to avoid predators and how avoidance behaviour is modified by experience gained from failed predation attempts. To enable me to address the aims of the project I built a 'meadow' containing artificial flowers that harbour robotic spiders. These robotic spiders are used to simulate an attack by a crab spider where a feeding bumblebee is grabbed between two sponge coated pincers and held for a fixed duration (see photos).

PhD research. Many thousands of the south-eastern Mediterranean subspecies Bombus terrestris dalmatinus are being imported into the UK (where the native subspecies is B. t. audax ) every year to pollinate both glasshouse (tomatoes) and field (strawberries) crops. These imports are a cause for concern because commercial bees are escaping into the wild, and B. terrestris subspecies are known to differ significantly in a number of traits such as coat colour, vision (Chittka, Ings & Raine 2004) and foraging performance (Ings, Schikora & Chittka 2005). Consequently, there is a risk that imported B. t. dalmatinus could become established in the UK and impact on the native subspecies B. t. audax . Therefore, the main aim of my thesis was to carry out an ecological comparison between the imported and native British subspecies to provide information necessary for an ecological risk assessment. I found that the commercially imported subspecies, B. t. dalmatinus, was ecologically superior to the native subspecies, B. t. audax, in a range of traits: B. t. dalmatinus were better nectar foragers and also had higher reproductive outputs (Ings, Ward & Chittka 2006). Furthermore, there is a real risk that commercial and native subspecies will hybridise (Ings, Raine & Chittka 2005).

CABI Bioscience. I worked on several DEFRA funded projects assessing the impacts of agricultural management on farmland wildlife. The largest of these projects examined the effects of lowland grassland management on farmland bird populations via its impact on plant and invertebrate communities (Atkinson et al 2005). Other projects assessed the impacts of cattle grazing on bumblebee communities and field margin management on plant and invertebrate communities (Asteraki et al 2004).

Scientific career

Leverhume Early Career Fellow - Queen Mary University of London (2009 - present)

Postdoctoral researcher (NERC funded) - Queen Mary University of London (2006 - 2009)

PhD - ‘Bombus terrestris, humble pollinators or assiduous invader?' Queen Mary (2003 - 2006)

Scientific Officer - CABI Bioscience, Egham, UK (2000 - 2003)

Assistant Scientific Officer - CEH, Banchory (1996 - 1997)

MRes - 'Ecology and Environmental Management', University of York (1995 -1996)

BSc (Hons) - Biological Science, University of Exeter (1992 - 1995)

External responsibilities and memberships

Associate editor for the Journal of Animal Ecology.

I am a referee for a range of ecology, entomology and animal behaviour journals including: Animal Cognition, Behavioral Ecology & Sociobiology, Ecological Entomology, Insect Sociaux, Journal of Animal Ecology, Journal of Apicultural Research, Journal of Ecology, Naturwissenschaften and Oikos

Fellow of the Royal Entomological Society (Elected 2008 - member over 10 years)

I am also a member of the Animal Behaviour Society, American Association for the Advancement of Science and a long standing member of the British Ecological Society and the Bees, Wasps and Ants Recording Society

Internal responsibilities and teaching

Teaching at Queen Mary:

Grants awarded

2009: Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship (3 years). Ings, T.C (PI) - Winter bumblebees: a response to global change?

2009: Queen Mary 'Bridging The Gap' grant (£7,000). Klages, R. (PI), Chittka, L., Ings, T.C. & Lenz, F. - Statistical physical analysis of the dynamics of foraging bumblebees

2008: Invited delegate on a Centre for Population Biology funded workshop grant on “Climate Change and Ecological Networks” (PI – Dr Guy Woodward: £25,000)

2006: Natural Environment Research Council NE/D012813/1 - (£334,418). Chittka, L. (PI) & Ings, T.C (Named Researcher Co-investigator) - Quantifying the dynamics of predator avoidance learning: bumblebees as a model

2003: University of London Central Research Fund (£3,000). Ings, T. C. (PI) - Do learning ability, foraging efficiency, and colony growth predispose commercially imported bumblebees to become invasive?

Publications

Stelzer, R.J., Carlton, M., Chittka, L. & Ings, T.C. (2010).  Winter active bumblebees (Bombus terrestris) achieve high foraging rates in urban Britain. PLoS One, 5, e9559. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0009559

Ings, T.C., Ings, N.L., Chittka, L. & Rasmont, P. (2010). A failed invasion? Commercially introduced pollinators in Southern France. Apidologie, 41, 1-13. doi:10.1051/apido/2009044

Ings, T.C., Raine, N.E. & Chittka, L. (2009). A population comparison of the strength and persistence of innate colour preference and learning speed in the bumblebee Bombus terrestris. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology, 68, 1207-1218. doi:10.1007/s00265-009-0731-8

Ings, T.C., & Chittka, L. (2009). Predator crypsis enhances behaviourally-mediated indirect effects on plants by altering bumblebee foraging preferences. Proceedings of the Royal Society B, 276, 2031-2036. doi:10.1098/rspb.2008.1748

Lopez-Vaamonde, C., Raine, N.E., Koning, J.W., Brown, R.M., Pereboom, J.J.M., Ings, T.C., Ramos-Rodriguez, O., Jordan, W.C. & Bourke, A.F.G. (2009). Lifetime reproductive success and longevity of queens in an annual social insect. Journal of Evolutionary Biology, 22, 983-996. doi:10.1111/j.1420-9101.2009.01706.x

Ings,T.C., Montoya, J.M., Bascompte, J., Bluthgen, N., Brown, L., Dormann, C.F., Edwards, F., Figueroa, D., Jacob, U., Jones, J.I., Lauridsen, R.B., Ledger, M.E., Lewis, H.M., Olesen, J.M., Van Veen, F.J.F., Warren, P.H., & Woodward, G. (2009). Ecological networks - beyond food webs. Journal of Animal Ecology, 78, 253-269. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2656.2008.01460.x

Ings,T.C. & Chittka, L. (2008). Speed accuracy tradeoffs and false alarms in bee responses to cryptic predators. Current Biology, 18, 1520-1524. doi:10.1016/j.cub.2008.07.074

Ings, T.C. (2007) Body size affects nectar uptake rates in Bombus terrestris (Hymenoptera: Apidae). Entomologia Generalis, 30, 186. PDF

Ings, T.C., Ward, N.L., & Chittka, L. (2006) Can commercially imported bumble bees out-compete their native conspecifics? Journal of Applied Ecology, 43, 940-948.

Raine, N.E., Ings, T.C., Dornhaus, A., Saleh, N., & Chittka, L. (2006) Adaptation, genetic drift, pleiotropy, and history in the evolution of bee foraging behavior. Advances in the Study of Behavior, 36, 305-354.

Raine, N.E., Ings, T.C., Ramos-Rodriguez, O., & Chittka, L. (2006) Intercolony variation in learning performance of a wild British bumblebee population (Hymenoptera: Apidae: Bombus terrestris audax). Entomologia Generalis, 28, 241-256. PDF

Atkinson, P.W., Fuller, R.J., Vickery, J.A., Conway, G., Tallowin, J.R.B., Smith, R.E.N., Haysom, K.H., Ings, T.C., Asteraki, E.J., & Brown, V.K. (2005) Influence of agricultural management, sward structure and food resources on grassland field use by birds in lowland England. Journal of Applied Ecology, 42, 932-942.

Ings, T.C., Raine, N.E., & Chittka, L. (2005) Mating preference in the commercially imported bumblebee species Bombus terrestris in Britain (Hymenoptera: Apidae). Entomologia Generalis, 28, 233-238. PDF

Ings, T.C. Schikora, J., & Chittka, L. (2005) Bumblebees, humble pollinators or assiduous invaders? A population comparison of foraging performance in Bombus terrestris. Oecologia, 144, 508-516.

Rasmont, P., Regali, A., Ings, T.C., Lognay, G., Baudart, E., Marlier, M., Delcarte, E., Viville, P., Marot, C., Falmagne, P., Verhaeghe, J.C., & Chittka, L. (2005) Analysis of pollen and nectar of Arbutus unedo as a food source for Bombus terrestris (Hymenoptera: Apidae). Journal of Economic Entomology, 98, 656-663.

Asteraki, E.J., Hart, B.J., Ings, T.C., & Manley, W.J. (2004) Factors influencing the plant and invertebrate diversity of arable field margins. Agriculture Ecosystems & Environment, 102, 219-231.

Chittka, L., Ings, T.C. & Raine, N.E. (2004) Chance and adaptation in the evolution of island bumblebee behaviour. Population Ecology, 46, 243-251.

Ings, T.C. & Hartley, S.E. (1999) The effect of habitat structure on carabid communities during the regeneration of a native Scottish forest. Forest Ecology and Management, 119, 123-136.

Recent oral presentations

Ings, T.C. & Chittka, L. (2009) Predator crypsis, prey cognition and their implications for plant-pollinator interactions. 46th Annual Meeting of the Animal Behavior Society, Pirenópolis, Brazil - Invited Symposium Speaker

Ings, T.C. & Chittka, L. (2009) Bees versus predators: how bumblebees learn to eat without being eaten! Central Association of Bee-Keepers Spring Meeting, London, UK.

Ings, T.C. & Chittka, L. (2008) Quantifying the dynamics of predator avoidance learning: bumblebees as a model. British Ecological Society Annual Meeting, London, UK.

Ings, T.C. & Chittka, L. (2008) Does the bumblebee trade have a sting in its tail? International Congress of Entomology, Durban, South Africa, 2008 - Invited Speaker

Ings, T.C. & Chittka, L. (2008) Learning to escape robotic spiders: predator avoidance learning in bumblebees. International Congress of Entomology, Durban, South Africa 2008

Ings, T.C., Raine, N.E. & Chittka, L. (2006). Is commercial trade in bumblebee pollinators threatening the diversity of Bombus terrestris? IBRA International Conference on Recent Trends in Apicultural Science in Mikkeli, Finland - Invited Speaker

Ings, T.C., Ings, N.L., Raine, N.E. & Chittka, L (2006). Commercialisation of bumblebees: economic miracle or environmental disaster? British Ecological Society Annual Meeting, Oxford, UK.

Ings, T.C., & Chittka, L. (2006) Bombus terrestris: “humble” pollinator or assiduous invader? Royal Entomological Society - Postgraduate Forum, London, 2006 - Awarded prize for best oral presentation

Ings, T.C., Ward, N.L., & Chittka, L. (2005) Can commercially imported bumblebees out-compete their native conspecifics? LERN Student Conference, London, 2005 - Awarded prize for best oral presentation

Public engagement

Media coverage of my work includes the following:

The Sunday Telegraph - article on my Fellowship research (8th Nov 2009)
BBC World Service - interviewed on Science in Action (5th Sept 2008)
New Scientist Online (5th Sept 2008)
Nature News  - doi:10.1038/news.2008.1082 (4th Sept 2008)
BBC News Online (4th Sept 2008)
The Daily Telegraph Online (4th Sept 2008)
New Scientist  - issue 2560 (13th July 2006)
The Daily Telegraph (14th July 2006)
The Independent  (13th July 2006)

Other public engagement activities include: