Leticia Avilés

Leticia Avilés is a Professor of Ecology, Evolution in the Department of Zoology at The University of British Columbia. Her research focuses on ecology and evolution, with an emphasis on understanding the forces shaping associations between lower-level units and higher-level organization, and their impacts on populations, communities, and ecosystems. Her work uses social spiders as a model system to explore topics such as the ecology and biogeography of social evolution, inbreeding consequences, life history traits, and sociality's role in community assembly. She also investigates how environmental gradients influence organisms and their interactions, particularly in Ecuador. Avilés teaches courses including Animal Behaviour, Darwinian Medicine, and Field Ecology.

Leticia Avilés is a professor in the Department of Zoology and Biodiversity Research Centre at the University of British Columbia. Her research focuses on ecology, evolution, and behaviour, with a particular emphasis on social spiders. Her work explores the causes and consequences of cooperation, sociality, and group living in spider species, including the social spider Anelosimus eximius. She investigates how factors such as colony size, sex ratio bias, and prey availability influence social dynamics and evolutionary outcomes. Her studies also address the ecological and genetic mechanisms underlying the evolution of sociality and cooperation among nonrelatives.