Christine Johnson

Curatorial Associate, Collection Management, Division of Invertebrate Zoology

Dr. Christine Johnson is a behavioral ecologist, whose research focuses on interactions between social parasites and their hosts, with a specialization on slave-maker ants. Social parasites specialize in parasitizing the behaviors of their host and often use chemical manipulation as well as aggression to invade societies of other species. Her other research focuses on the ultimate and proximate mechanisms that drive divergent life history strategies in ants, as well as reproductive dominance hierarchies in species that lack a morphologically driven division of labor. Currently she is embarking on a new project that focuses on the role of bacteria in parasite-host relationships. She is also working on a revision of the plant bug genus Reuteroscopus (Miridae: Phylini), the males of which have elaborate feathered genitalia. She is a co-PI on a Thematic Collections Network grant (Tri-trophic Digitization of Herbivores, Plants and Parasitoids).

• Official AMNH page for Christine Johnson