Phil Lester
Biological Sciences
Victoria University Coastal Ecology Laboratory
New Zealand
Biography
I currently sit on the editorial boards of the journals Biological Invasions, Myrmecological News and Integrative Zoology. I have been previously awarded a Fulbright Senior Scholar Fellowship, and a RSNZ James Cook Fellowship. Funding for our group comes from a variety of sources including the RSNZ Marsden Fund. I currently am the President of the Royal Society of NZ (Wellington Branch), I have been a previous Head of School for the School of Biological Sciences, and a prior President of the Entomological Society of New Zealand.
Research Interest
Ecology of social insects, Entomology , Animal Ecology
Publications
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Lester PJ, Bosch PJ, Gruber MAM, et al. 2015. No evidence of enemy release in pathogen and microbial communities of common wasps (Vespula vulgaris) in their native and introduced range. PLoS One 10: e0121358.
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Brenton-Rule EC, Barbieri RF & Lester PJ. 2016. Corruption, development and governance indicators predict invasive species risk from trade. Proceedings of the Royal Society B-Biological Sciences 283: 20160901.
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Lester PJ & MAM Gruber. 2016. Booms, busts and population collapses in invasive ants. Biological Invasions 18: 3091-3101.
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Lester PJ, Haywood J, Archer ME & Shortall CR. 2017. The long-term population dynamics of common wasps in their native and invaded range. Journal of Animal Ecology 86: 337-347
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Lester PJ, Sébastien A, Suarez AV, Barbieri RF & Gruber MAM. 2017. Symbiotic bacterial communities in ants are modified by invasion pathway bottlenecks and alter host behaviour. Ecology 98: 861–874.
