vanessa couldridge

Vanessa Couldridge

Tel: +27-21-959-2314

Undergraduate Courses:

LSC 142: Biodiversity and Conservation Biology (Ecology section)

Brief description of origin of the universe and the solar system. Basic rules of classification, the diversity of ‘life’ including

all life forms: viruses and monera, protista and fungi, plant diversity, invertebrate diversity, vertebrate diversity. Biotic

and abiotic components of the biosphere, levels of organization (biosphere, biomes, ecosystems, and populations) and

the unifying role of ecology in biology, population dynamics, interactions within communities, energy flow, food webs, nutrient cycling,

human impact and environmental concerns. Basic philosophy of science and basic principles of

statistics (replication, means and standard deviation).

BCB 211: Animal Diversity (Invertebrates)

Overview, classification and identification of invertebrate animals. A comparative study of the function and structure

of three of the following systems: muscle and skeletal structure and locomotion; circulatory and immune systems;

reproductive and endocrine systems; feeding and nutrition; respiration and excretion; life history strategies.

Postgraduate Courses:

BCB 702: Biostatistics

This module aims to introduce students to basic statistical concepts, methods and software so that they can perform

analyses of data. The module will include the following topics: measurement of central tendency and dispersion,

the normal distribution, the t distribution and comparison of means, calculation of 95% confidence intervals,

basic analysis of variance, correlation and regression techniques, chi-squared tests, Mann-Whitney U tests and

other non-parametric methods. More specialized topics in multivariate analyses may be included.

BCB 703: Scientific Methodology

Research Focus:

My current research focuses on the ecology and behaviour of bladder grasshoppers; a small family of insects

endemic to southern African and renowned for their extraordinary acoustic communication abilities.

Publications in peer reviewed journals:

Couldridge, V.C.K. and van Staaden, M.J. (2006) Female preferences for male calls in the bladder

grasshopper Bullacris membracioides. Behaviour 143: 1439-1456.

Couldridge, V.C.K. and van Staaden, M.J. (2004) Habitat-dependent transmission of male advertisement calls in

bladder grasshoppers (Orthoptera; Pneumoridae). Journal of Experimental Biology 207: 2777-2786.

Couldridge, V.C.K. (2002) Experimental manipulation of male eggspots demonstrates female preference for

one large spot in Pseudotropheus lombardoi. Journal of Fish Biology 60: 726-730.

Couldridge, V.C.K. and Alexander, G.J. (2001) Color patterns and species recognition in four closely related

species of Lake Malawi cichlid. Behavioral Ecology 13: 59-64.

Couldridge, V.C.K. and Alexander, G.J. (2001) Does the time spent near a male predict female mate choice

in a Malawian cichlid? Journal of Fish Biology 59: 667-672.

Brooks, R. and Couldridge, V. (1999) Multiple sexual ornaments co-evolve with multiple mating preferences.

The American Naturalist 154: 37-45.

Book Chapters:

van Staaden, M.J., Römer, H. and Couldridge, V.C.K. (2004) A novel approach to hearing: the acoustic world of

pneumorid grasshoppers. Pp 335-350. In: Prete, F.R. (ed) Complex worlds from simpler nervous systems. The MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts.