Email:

cjohnsonSPAMFILTER@amnh.org

Phone:

212-769-5605

Research Interests

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.

Collections Responsibility: Collections overall

• Publications

  Johnson, C.A. & Sündstrom, L. (2012) Cuticular chemistry in the facultatively polygyne ant Formica truncorum (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). Annales Zoologici Fennici, 49(1-2):1-17.

  Lommelen, E., Wenseleers, T., Johnson, C.A., Drijfhout, F.P., Billen, J., & Gobin, B. (2010) A combination of fertility signals and aggression  regulates reproduction in the ant Gnamptogenys striatula. Journal of Insect Behavior. 23(3): 236-249

  Slater, J. A., Schuh, R.T., Cassis, G., Johnson, C.A. & Pedraza-Peñalosa. (2009) Revision of Laryngodus Herrich-Schaeffer, an Allocasuarina feeder, with comments on its biology and the classification of the family (Heteroptera: Lygaeoidea: Rhyparochromidae). Invertebrate Systematics 23:111-133.

  Johnson, C.A., Phelan, L.P., & Herbers, J.M. (2008) Stealth and reproductive dominance in a rare parasitic ant. Animal Behaviour 76:1965-1976.                                                 

  Johnson, C.A. (2008) Slave-maker ant competition for a shared host and the effect on coevolutionary dynamics. Ecological Monographs 78:445-460.                                                      

  Lommelen, E., Johnson, C.A., Drijfhout, F.P., Billen, J., & Gobin, B. (2008) Egg marking in the queen-less ant Gnamptogenys striatula: the source and mechanism. Journal of Insect Physiology 54:727-392.

  Herbers, J.M. & Johnson, C.A. (2007). Social structure and winter survival in acorn ants. Oikos 116:829-835.

  Johnson, C.A. & Herbers, J.M. (2006). Impact of parasite sympatry on the geographic mosaic of coevolution. Ecology 87:382-394.

  Lommelen, E., Johnson, C.A., Drijfhout, F.P., Billen, J., Wenseleers, T. & Gobin, B. (2006). Cuticular hydrocarbons provide reliable cues of fertility in Gnamptogenys striatula. Journal of Chemical Ecology32:20023-2034.

  O’Hara, B., Fowler, M.S., & Johnson, C.A. (2006). Why negatives should be viewed as positives. Nature Correspondence439:782 (non-refereed).

  Johnson, C.A., Sundström, L., & Billen, J. (2005). Development of alary muscles in single- and multiple-queen populations of the wood ant Fomica truncorum. Annales Zoologici Fennici 42:225-234.

  Johnson, C.A., Topoff, H., Vander Meer, R.K., & Lavine, B. (2005). Do these eggs smell funny to you?: A study of egg discrimination by hosts of a slave-maker ant. Behavioral Ecology & Sociobiology 57:245-255.

  Kotze, D.J., Johnson, C.A., O’Hara, R.B., Vepsäläinen, K., & Fowler, M. (2004). The need for a journal of negative results in ecology & evolutionary biology. Journal of Negative Results – Ecology & Evolutionary Biology 1:1-4.

  Johnson, C.A., Lommelen, E., Allard, D. & Gobin, B. (2003). The emergence of collective foraging in the arboreal Gnamptogenys menadensis. Naturwissenschaften, 90:332-336.

  Johnson, C.A., Topoff, H., Vander Meer, R.K., & Lavine, B. (2002). Host queen killing by a slave-maker ant queen: when is a host queen worth attacking? Animal Behaviour, 64:807-815.

  Johnson, C.A., Vander Meer, R.K., & Lavine, B. (2001). Changes in the cuticular hydrocarbon patterns of a slave-maker queen after killing a Formica host queen. Journal of Chemical Ecology, 27:1787-1804.

  Johnson, C.A., Agosti, D., Delabie, J.H., Dumpert, K., Williams, D.J., von Tschirnhaus, M. & Maschwitz, U. (2001). Acropyga and Azteca ants with scale insects: 20 million years of intimate symbiosis. American Museum Novitates, 3335:1-18.

  Johnson, C.A. (2000). Responses of two potential host species to pupae of the obligatory slave-making ant, Polyergus breviceps. Journal of Insect Behavior, 13:711-720.

• Teaching Experience

  New York Botanical Garden, NY. Entomology, Spring 2013

  Columbia University, NY. Insect Diversity (Adjunct Faculty), Fall 2009

  Pace University, NY. Entomology (Adjunct Faculty). Fall 2007

  The Ohio State University, OH.  Guest Lecturer, Social Insect Biology - 2004, 2005, Evolution -2006

  The Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium. Elements of Kin Recognition (Guest Lecturer).  Spring 2002.

  Hunter College, NY.  Psychology (Instructor).  September 1996 – December 1997.

  Hunter College, NY.  Ethology (Instructor).  September 1996

  School of Visual Arts, NY.  Animal Behavior (Adjunct Faculty).  September 1996.

  Hunter College, NY.  Social Psychology (Teaching Assistant).  Spring 1997.

  Hunter College, NY.  Introductory Psychology (Teaching Assistant).  Fall 1995 -  Spring 1996.

  Hunter College, NY.  Experimental Psychology (Teaching Assistant).  Fall 1993 – Spring 1994.

  New York University, NY.  Introduction to Statistics (Teaching Assistant).  Fall 1992.

  Graduate Committees

  • Kevin Purce, CUNY
  • Sam Marquand, Animal Behavior & Conservation Program, Hunter College