Andrew Bourke's Website
As well as pursuing my research interests (see here and here), I am interested in all kinds of natural history, including observing and recording insects (see here and here) and bird watching (see here and here). I also enjoy fossil collecting (see here). So this website is about both my research and these other interests.
SELECTED NATURAL HISTORY HIGHLIGHTS
PAPER WASP IN GARDEN: The European Paper Wasp (Polistes dominula) is scarce in Britain, but as it happens a population appears to have become established in or near Norwich. Last summer, we were lucky enough to have both females and males visit our garden (to feed at umbels of Shrubby Hare's-ear, Bupleurum fruticosum). This year the species has reappeared, with this female visiting our pond for water in recent very hot weather. Norwich, Norfolk, May 2026.
HAZEL LEAF-ROLLER WEEVIL: This distinctive weevil (Apoderus coryli) was an interesting recent addition to our garden's insect list, appearing on a leaf of a small Hazel bush that we'd left to grow up after it sprouted a few years ago in a shrubby corner (originating, we suspect, from a nut dropped by a Grey Squirrel). Norwich, Norfolk, June 2026.
SWALLOWTAIL BUTTERFLY IN THE NORFOLK BROADS: The Swallowtail (Papilio machaon) is an icon of the Broads, and this year we caught up with it at How Hill, where this one was showing well on flowers of Bramble. How Hill Estate, nr Ludham, Norfolk, May 2026.
SELECTED RESEARCH PAPER HIGHLIGHTS
COSTS OF REPRODUCTION IN EUSOCIAL INSECT QUEENS: In a paper in BMC Biology, we tested whether queens in annual eusocial insects like the bumble bee Bombus terrestris experience costs of reproduction. We experimentally increased queens’ costs of reproduction by removing their eggs, which caused queens to increase their egg-laying rate. Treatment queens lived significantly shorter lives than control queens whose egg-laying rate was not increased. In addition, treatment and control queens differed in age-related gene expression in both their overall expression profiles and the expression of ageing-related genes. These findings suggest that costs of reproduction are present but latent, i.e. that positive fecundity-longevity associations in queens of B. terrestris and similar species are condition-dependent. They also raised the possibility that a partial remodelling of genetic and endocrine networks underpinning ageing may have occurred in B. terrestris such that, in unmanipulated conditions, age-related gene expression depends more on chronological than relative age.
The paper is: Collins DH, Prince DC, Donelan JL, Chapman T, Bourke AFG (2023) Costs of reproduction are present but latent in eusocial bumblebee queens. BMC Biology 21: 153.