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
YOUNG QUEEN MEDIAN WASP: Last summer, workers and males of this handsome wasp species (Dolichovespula media) visited flowers in our garden (favouring Shrubby Hare's-ear [Bupleurum], Fennel [Foeniculum] and Snowberry [Symphoricarpos]). So there must have been a nest or nests nearby. Recently, this queen appeared in the garden, resting on an Ivy leaf. She is presumably a young individual produced last year in a local nest, now emerged from overwintering and looking to found a new colony of her own. Norwich, Norfolk, April 2026.
COLTSFOOT IN FLOWER: Coltsfoot (Tussilago farfara) in flower is an unassuming but sure sign of approaching spring. The emergence of the flowers before the leaves and the plant's habit of growing on disturbed ground (here slumped sea-cliffs) only add to its modest appeal. Overstrand, Norfolk, March 2026.
VIOLET CARPENTER BEE NESTING IN NORFOLK: The spectacular Violet Carpenter Bee (Xylocopa violacea) is a scarce but increasing species in Britain. In spring and summer 2025, we were lucky enough to have one nest in our garden and successfully rear adult offspring. The photo shows one of the daughter females resting on our lawn (Norwich, August 2025). We wrote an article describing this nesting event in Transactions of the Norfolk and Norwich Naturalists' Society, and this has now been published. For details, see Chapman and Bourke (2025) here.
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.