World's Best Scientists 2026 revealed!

D-Index & Metrics

Ecology and Evolution

D-Index
101
Citations
33517
World Ranking
268
National Ranking
41

Research.com Recognitions

  • 2021 - German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina - Deutsche Akademie der Naturforscher Leopoldina – Nationale Akademie der Wissenschaften Organismic and Evolutionary Biology

Overview

Lars Chittka is affiliated with Queen Mary University of London in the United Kingdom. Their research primarily spans the fields of Agricultural and Biological Sciences and Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology, with notable contributions in several subfields including Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics, Genetics, Insect Science, Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience, and Social Psychology.

The main topics covered in their work focus on Plant and animal studies, Insect and Arachnid Ecology and Behavior, Neurobiology and Insect Physiology Research, Insect and Pesticide Research, Animal Behavior and Reproduction, Animal and Plant Science Education, and Olfactory and Sensory Function Studies.

Among their recent papers are:

  • Bumble bees display cross-modal object recognition between visual and tactile senses (2020), published in Science
  • Can insects feel pain? A review of the neural and behavioural evidence (2022), published in Advances in insect physiology
  • Do bumble bees play? (2022), published in Animal Behaviour
  • Motivational trade-offs and modulation of nociception in bumblebees (2022), published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
  • Bumblebees acquire alternative puzzle-box solutions via social learning (2023), published in PLoS Biology

Lars Chittka frequently collaborates with several co-authors, including Cwyn Solvi, Alice Bridges, HaDi MaBouDi, Joseph Woodgate, and Matilda Gibbons. These researchers have contributed collectively to various works, indicating sustained collaborative efforts in their field.

The scientist's publications have appeared in a variety of venues, with frequent contributions to bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory), Faculty Opinions - Post-Publication Peer Review of the Biomedical Literature, Animal Behaviour, eLife, and Science.

Chittka is also an author of the book The Mind of a Bee, published by Princeton University Press in 2022.

In recognition of their contributions, they were awarded by the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina in 2021 in the field of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology.

Best Publications

  • Generalization in pollination systems, and why it matters

    Nickolas M. Waser;Lars Chittka;Mary V. Price;Neal M. Williams

  • The evolution of color vision in insects.

    Adriana D. Briscoe;Lars Chittka

  • Flower Constancy, Insect Psychology, and Plant Evolution

    Lars Chittka;James D. Thomson;Nickolas M. Waser

  • Are Bigger Brains Better

    Lars Chittka;Jeremy Niven

  • The colour hexagon: a chromaticity diagram based on photoreceptor excitations as a generalized representation of colour opponency

    Lars Chittka

  • Speed-accuracy tradeoffs in animal decision making.

    Lars Chittka;Peter Skorupski;Nigel E. Raine

  • Visual constraints in foraging bumblebees: flower size and color affect search time and flight behavior.

    J. Spaethe;J. Tautz;L. Chittka

  • Psychophysics: bees trade off foraging speed for accuracy.

    Lars Chittka;Adrian Geoffrey Dyer;Adrian Geoffrey Dyer;Fiola Bock;Anna Dornhaus;Anna Dornhaus

  • Ultraviolet as a component of flower reflections, and the colour perception of Hymenoptera.

    Lars Chittka;Avi Shmida;Nikolaus Troje;Randolf Menzel

  • Recognition of flowers by pollinators

    Lars Chittka;Nigel E Raine

  • The evolutionary adaptation of flower colours and the insect pollinators' colour vision

    Lars Chittka;Randolf Menzel

  • Sensor capability and atmospheric correction in ocean colour remote sensing

    Simon Emberton;Lars Chittka;Andrea Cavallaro;Menghua Wang

  • Colour preferences of flower-naive honeybees

    M. Giurfa;J. Núñez;L. Chittka;R. Menzel

  • Floral iridescence, produced by diffractive optics, acts as a cue for animal pollinators.

    Heather M. Whitney;Mathias Kolle;Piers Andrew;Lars Chittka

  • The genomes of two key bumblebee species with primitive eusocial organization

    Ben M Sadd;Ben M Sadd;Seth M Barribeau;Seth M Barribeau;Guy Bloch;Dirk C. de Graaf

  • Social learning in insects--from miniature brains to consensus building.

    Ellouise Leadbeater;Lars Chittka

  • The correlation of learning speed and natural foraging success in bumble-bees.

    Nigel E Raine;Lars Chittka

  • Spatial memory in insect navigation.

    Matthew Collett;Lars Chittka;Thomas S. Collett

  • Associative Mechanisms Allow for Social Learning and Cultural Transmission of String Pulling in an Insect

    Sylvain Alem;Clint J. Perry;Xingfu Zhu;Xingfu Zhu;Olli J. Loukola

  • Foraging dynamics of bumble bees: correlates of movements within and between plant species

    Lars Chittka;Andreas Gumbert;Jan Kunze

  • Cognitive Ecology of Pollination: Animal Behaviour and Floral Evolution

    Lars Chittka

  • WHY RED FLOWERS ARE NOT INVISIBLE TO BEES

    Lars Chittka;Nickolas M. Waser

  • Biological significance of distinguishing between similar colours in spectrally variable illumination: bumblebees ( Bombus terrestris ) as a case study

    Adrian Geoffrey Dyer;Adrian Geoffrey Dyer;Lars Chittka;Lars Chittka

  • Can honey bees count landmarks

    Lars Chittka;Karl Geiger

Frequent Co-Authors

Nigel E. Raine
Nigel E. Raine University of Guelph
Adrian G. Dyer
Adrian G. Dyer RMIT University
Anna Dornhaus
Anna Dornhaus University of Arizona
Beverley J. Glover
Beverley J. Glover University of Cambridge
James D. Thomson
James D. Thomson University of Toronto
Mark J. F. Brown
Mark J. F. Brown Royal Holloway University of London
Christine G. Elsik
Christine G. Elsik University of Missouri
Vincent Savolainen
Vincent Savolainen Imperial College London
Randolf Menzel
Randolf Menzel Freie Universität Berlin
Evgeny M. Zdobnov
Evgeny M. Zdobnov Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics

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