Question: why did you choose insects as your research?

Tom Dally answered on 17 Mar 2020: last edited 17 Mar 2020 1:39 pm

I think because they are so different from us (and most other animals). There could be as many as 5.5 million species in the world (possibly more), and this provides a huge variety of research opportunities! Insects are also vital for most of the environmental processes that get carried out on Earth – they recycle nutrients, remove waste, pollinate plants, and act as their own population control through predation and parasitism… They show a huge range of behaviours, including some that we thought were only found in humans, like how some ants farm aphids for the honeydew they produce! To be honest, I just really like that I’ll never come close to learning all there is to know about them.