Lachlan Jones

Dr Lachlan Jones

Agricultural ecologist

Gulbali Institute

Biography

My career began at the University of Queensland where I studied a Bachelor of Science in Ecology and Chemistry. I remained at UQ for my Honours (2015) and PhD (2016-2020) under Prof Gimme Walter and Dr Michelle Rafter working on host associations of generalist herbivores, particularly their host plant recognition and egg-laying behaviour. I worked at CSIRO as a research assistant in weed biocontrol for 2½ years while on the side studied age progression of colony tasks in stingless bees with James Hereward and Tobias Smith. During the second half of 2022 I did a short postdoc at the University of New England working on pollination in apple orchards with Romina Rader’s lab. In 2023 I went to the US as a Fulbright Scholar and worked for 8½ months on solitary bees and climate change with Prof Rebecca Irwin at North Carolina State University and the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory. I then worked with Prof Mark Brown at Royal Holloway University of London on medical effects of heather nectar compounds for protecting bumblebees from gut parasites. I returned to Australia to start my current role on sesame pests and weeds with Geoff Gurr in November 2024.

Research
  • Entomology
  • Biological Control
  • Crop protection
  • Insect-plant interactions
  • Insect behaviour
Publications
Full publications list on CRO

Recent  Publications

Jones, L. C., Lau, I. H., Smith, T. J., Walter, G. H., & Hereward, J. P. (2024). Age-related task progression in two Australian Tetragonula stingless bees. Insectes Sociaux, 71(3), 309–322. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00040-024-00942-3

Jones, L. C. (2022). Insects allocate eggs adaptively according to plant age, stress, disease or damage. Proceedings of the Royal Society B, 289(1978), 20220831. https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2022.0831

Jones, L. C., Rafter, M. A., & Walter, G. H. (2020). Host plant acceptance in a generalist insect: Threshold, feedback or choice? Behaviour, 157(12–13), 1059–1089. https://doi.org/10.1163/1568539X-bja10041

Jones, L. C., Rafter, M. A., & Walter, G. H. (2019). Insects allocate eggs adaptively across their native host plants. Arthropod-Plant Interactions, 13(2), 181–191. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11829-019-09688-3

Jones, L. C., Foster, B. J., Rafter, M. A., & Walter, G. H. (2018). Tiny insects against the weather—Flight and foraging patterns of Frankliniella schultzei (Thripidae) not altered by onset of rainfall. Insect Science, 25(6), 1119–1127. https://doi.org/10.1111/1744-7917.12461