The Sumner Lab

Insect Research Group, University College London

  • Our Group
    • The Sumner Lab
    • Seirian Sumner
    • Cintia Akemi Oi
    • Christopher Wyatt
    • Benjamin Taylor
    • Alex Cerqueira de Araujo
    • Fernando Duarte Frutos
    • Iona Cunningham-Eurich
    • Romuald Tcheutchoua
    • Idris Adams
    • Femi E Benny
    • Caroline Chandler
    • Left The Nest
      • Owen Corbett
      • Lewis Revely
      • Emeline Favreau
      • Alessandro Cini
      • Robin Southon
      • Adam Devenish
      • Sandra Moreno
      • Daisy Taylor
      • Emily Bell
      • Sam Duckerin
      • Patrick Kennedy
  • Our Research
    • Themes
      • Evolution
      • Genomics and Bioinformatics
      • Mechanisms
      • Ecology
    • Lab Publications
    • Student Projects
    • The Big Wasp Survey
    • Eco-Flow
    • Wasp Genomes
      • Yellow-legged Asian Hornet genome
      • Stenogastrinae – hover wasps
  • News and Updates
  • Endless Forms
    • What People Say
    • Reviews
    • Get Your Copy
  • Media
  • Contact
  • Citizen science for the win: how we used wasps collected by people in their back gardens for a genetic study

    We used samples from the Big Wasp Survey to analyse the population genetic structure of the Common Yellowjacket, Vespula vulgaris across the UK. You can read the paper here (Open Access).

    News and Updates, Research
    14 September 2023
  • Visiting collaborator Prof. Fabio Nascimento (USP-Brazil)

    Professor Fabio Nascimento visited the Summer lab in July 2023 as part of the Nerc-Fapesp Seed Corn project (NE/W004437/1) “Secrets to a Successful Hunt: Integrating Genomes, Chemistry, and Behaviour in Neotropical Solitary Wasps”.

    News and Updates
    12 July 2023
  • Wasp Day 2023

    In order to foster new relationships between wasp researchers, the NHM and its collections, we organised the first ever (with hopefully more to come) “Wasp Day” in May 2023.

    News and Updates
    10 July 2023
  • Wasp Collecting in the Amazon – Brazil January 2023

    In January of 2023, Prof Seirian Sumner and post-doc Dr Cintia Oi travelled to Brazil to carry out work as part of their project Secrets to a Successful Hunt: Integrating Genomes, Chemistry and Behaviour in Neotropical Solitary Wasps​ (read full details of this collaborative international NERC-funded project here).

    News and Updates, Research
    18 April 2023
  • Nextflow Summit and Hackathon, Barcelona – October 2022

    Postdoc Émeline Favreau on her experience attending the Nextflow Summit and Hackathon in October 2022.

    News and Updates
    9 February 2023
  • New paper highlighted in Genome Biology and Evolution

    A new paper, first author Emeline Favreau, has been highlighted in the January edition of journal Genome Biology and Evolution. Congratulations to Emeline, Chris Wyatt and Katie Geist on their momentous study on the molecular basis of sociality across bees and wasps. Read the highlight here, or find the paper itself here.

    News and Updates, Research
    26 January 2023
  • Lab visit @wespenvriend 

    We were delighted to host a group meeting with Sjoert on November 2022.

    News and Updates
    6 January 2023
  • Sampling European Hornets

    We went to sample some Vespa crabro workers at the end of the summer. MSci student Iona had previously located the active nest within a public park.

    News and Updates
    31 October 2020
  • In2Science A-level student blog

    Ed: We were delighted to host A-level student Elo Wilkinson-Rowe in our lab for two weeks in the summer of 2018. She threw herself into being a research scientist with great gusto, and seems to have enjoyed herself. Read her Blog below. If you are interested in the In2Science scheme (as a student or a…

    News and Updates
    24 January 2019
  • Lessons From the Jungle

    This summer I was fortunate enough to be able to join the Sumner lab for a field season out in Trinidad. My role was as a research assistant as part of a four-person team working on two projects looking at species of tropical social wasps. This first was examining

    News and Updates
    21 October 2015
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RECENT Publications

2025 Devenish, A.J.M., Newton, R.J., Midgley, J.J., Colville, L., Bridle, J., Sumner, S. 2025. Mutualistic interactions facilitate invasive species spread. Functional Ecology, 39 (1), 254-267. 2024 Toth, A.L., Wyatt, C.D.R., Masonbrink, R.E., Geist, K.S., Fortune, R., Scott, S.B., Favreau, E., Rehan, S.M., Sumner, S., Gardiner, M.M., Sivakoff, F.S. 2025. New genomic resources inform transcriptomic responses […]

Full publication list here

rECENT POSTS

  • Where hornets are Queens and not pests: a journey into the Land of Hills 

    4 June 2025
  • Jéferson Pedrosa dos Santos – on his six month project with the Sumner Lab

    23 January 2025
  • Sreya Magar: Evolution of Prey Selection and Life History Traits in Sphecidae Wasps 

    23 January 2025

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