Meet the Editor: Sheena Cotter 

Meet the Editor: Sheena Cotter  

Sheena Cotter has been one of the Editors-in-Chief of RES journal Ecological Entomology since 2020. She is the first in our series of editor interviews, giving our members and the wider entomological community a peek into the person behind the role. 

How did your academic career develop, and what led you to entomology in particular?

My upbringing was very suburban and I had very little contact with the natural world outside of parks. It wasn’t really until I was a zoology undergraduate at the University of Liverpool that I discovered biodiversity. Before my final year I did ‘camp America’ in upstate New York, working in the camp laundry, and found myself surrounded by incredible insects. The laundry room had an open window to let out the steam generated during the day and one night I left the light on by accident. The next morning I discovered the results of my impromptu moth trap and it was astonishing. The number and diversity of moths that had appeared in the little room overnight was amazing. I was hooked! I chose insect projects for my final year thesis, and have worked on insects ever since. 

What is the most rewarding part of your job?

My favourite part of my day job is teaching students about insects in the field, whether in the UK or overseas. I love it when students who previously had no interest in insects, use a sweep net for the first time and discover the diversity of life that is mostly hidden around them. 

“I love being involved with a society with a mission to make sure the importance and wonder of insects is appreciated, whilst being welcoming to all.”

– Sheena Cotter

What has been your most exciting or interesting research discovery and why?

I started a position as a PDRA with Rebecca Kilner* at the University of Cambridge to look at ageing and reproduction in burying beetles. Becky was an expert in parental care and social evolution. My background was in insect immunity and its costs, so our skills and experience were quite different but complementary. Burying beetles prepare the carcass of a small bird or rodent for their offspring to feed on. As part of this process, they smear the carcass with secretions that all the literature I read claimed was ‘antimicrobial’. This was fascinating, I wondered what form of antimicrobials they used so I searched further but could find no tests of the ‘antimicrobial’ claim anywhere, the referencing was all circular. This inspired me to carry out my own tests. I found that the beetles produce a form of lysozyme in their secretions, but only when they are on a carcass. Before breeding their secretions contain no antimicrobials, but they are switched on when the beetles are placed on a carcass and rapidly decline when the beetles are removed from the carcass. This isn’t my most highly cited paper but it was the first one that felt like my own ‘discovery’ so I’m very proud of it! 

Who is your inspiration and why?

Probably Professor Rebecca Kilner FRS*. I can never hope to be that successful in my academic career, but she has mentored and inspired a huge number of researchers and has been consistently supportive of women in science. She made me feel like I had enormous potential, I’m not sure I lived up to it but it was a nice feeling! 

If you could have one superpower, what would it be and why?

I’d like to be able to shrink down to the size of a beetle so that I can see what the world looks like on that scale. I’m sure it would be pretty terrifying so I would have to also be invulnerable to squishing or predation, but I imagine it would be a bit like wandering across the Serengeti, watching huge herd of wildebeest, except with aphids! 

If you could wake up with any new skill, what would it be?

I’d love to be one of those people who can look at an insect and know exactly what species it is. I don’t have the focus to get really good at any one group, it takes a lifetime of dedicated study and I am interested in too many things, but I’d love for that skill to magically appear! 

*Rebecca Kilner gave the RES Verrall Lecture in 2024, which you can watch here.