PhD opportunities
Mountain crayfish species limits. This PhD project would involve fieldwork in NSW, ACT and Victoria collecting samples of freshwater crayfish (Euastacus crassus and E. rieki and others). Both field and laboratory research would be included with options to explore the use of eDNA as a detection tool, population genetics of multiple populations, or Temnocephala speciation.
Flat flies and parrots and populations, oh my! The Hippoboscidae are some of the most interesting of ectoparasites (to me at least) because not only do they drink blood, but they carry lice around (phoresy) and give birth to live young! In this project, an existing collection of flat flies from several species of parrot from Tasmania (swift, green rosella, orange-bellied) will be identified morphologically to species and compared to flat flies from species that share parrot hollows such as tree martins. These flat flies will have their alimentary tract dissected out (to test for viruses; separate Honours or Masters project cosupervised with Andrew Peters (CSU)), and then a molecular phylogeny constructed of the flat flies to determine if there are any population structures evident between migratory and non-migratory host species (Masters or PhD). Cosupervised with Dejan Stojanovic (ANU).
Dr Maggie J Watson 