The Sumner Lab

Insect Research Group, University College London

  • What can Swarm-Founding Wasps tell us about the Evolution of Sociality?

    I am an MSci student working on my dissertation project in the Sumner lab. My project looked at caste differences and aspects of the colony cycle in a species of Swarm-Founding wasp native to Trinidad; Metapolybia cingulata.

  • Lonely Potter

    VIDEO Check out this time-lapse video from my 2014 field season of a busy potter wasp constructing a pot in the Arima Valley, Trinidad.

  • ‘What’s the point of wasps?’

    We at the Sumner Group encounter this question a lot. Wasps are just useless, painful, and inexplicably determined to ruin your picnic, right? Actually, no! It turns out that wasps are surprisingly important in more ways than you might guess, and we’ve assembled a handy catalogue of reasons why. So next time we’re asked the…

  • New recruits join the lab

    Today we welcome Patrick Kennedy and Sam Duckerin to the Sumner group! Patrick and Sam will spend the next 4 years investigating social evolution in tropical paper-wasps and the effects of pesticides on pollinators respectively.