Photo of Professor Mike Speed

Professor Mike Speed

Dean of the School of Life Sciences School of Life Sciences

    Research

    Research Overview

    My research is in:

    1) Animal Communication, with a focuses on the stability of communication systems which are vulnerable to cheating. I use advertisement of prey defences as a case-study in communication, especially where animals use costly, bright colouration to signal to their enemies.

    2) Evolutionary Bioinformatics Research: focuses on generating statistical measures to evaluate the predictability of phenotype evolution. It asks, are life’s forms limited by the narrow range of engineering solutions to life’s challenges?

    3) Coevolution and plant secondary metabolites - seeks general explanations for the notorious diversification of plant metabolisms.

    Research Interest 1

    Research Interests

    My main research focus is on the evolution of defensive traits in prey species, specifically I am warning displays, crypsis and camouflage and the repellent secondary defences (such as toxins or spines). This research has a major empirical component - testing functional hypotheses about varied forms of prey defences with individually-identified wild (bird) predators, and a major theoretical component – developing models of defensive trait optimisation, paying particular attention to the way that components of a defensive ensemble co-evolve in relation to one another. I am also interested in particular species that have well defined anti-predator defences such as the common wasp; with the animal genomics group here, we are looking at the phylogeography of variation in warning displays in common wasps.

    Research Grants

    Exploring optimisation of defences in prey animals: an individual-based approach - Fellowship

    LEVERHULME TRUST (UK)

    September 2006 - August 2008

    Application of spectral analysis to test the theory of countershaded-crypsis in insect larvae.

    ROYAL SOCIETY (CHARITABLE)

    March 2005 - February 2006

    Optimal investment in costly anti-predator defences

    NATURAL ENVIRONMENT RESEARCH COUNCIL

    February 2008 - February 2011

    The evolutionary ecology of automimicry.

    ROYAL SOCIETY (CHARITABLE)

    August 2004

    Butterfly Wings - A testing ground for Darwinian and Wallacian hypotheses of sexual dichromatism

    ASSOCIATION FOR THE STUDY OF ANIMAL BEHAVIOUR (UK)

    July 2013 - August 2013

    Masquerade: critical testing of the ecology of disguise

    NATURAL ENVIRONMENT RESEARCH COUNCIL

    June 2008 - June 2011

    Development of novel molecular tools for the study of sperm usage in insects

    LEVERHULME TRUST (UK)

    January 2007 - November 2010

    The evolutionary ecology of defensive toxins

    NATURAL ENVIRONMENT RESEARCH COUNCIL

    July 2013 - September 2013

    Causes of signal mimicry and its consequences for optimal investment in secondary defences.

    NATURAL ENVIRONMENT RESEARCH COUNCIL

    October 2007 - September 2010

    Research Collaborations

    Professor Graeme Ruxton

    External: University of Glasgow

    Collaborative work on the evolution of secondary defences in prey animals