Written by Trisha Mahtani
Illustrated byWinsy Leung
Dr. Maydianne Andrade is an inspiring scientist who studies black widow spiders, a group of venomous spider species. Their venom contains a dangerous neurotoxin called latrotoxin that, while not fatal, can cause pain, cramps and vomiting in humans. While most of us would be nervous about working with these spiders, Dr. Andrade has been studying them since she obtained her Master of Science () degree at the University of Toronto Mississauga.
Dr. Andrade’s project focused on male Australian black widow spiders, or redback spiders (Latrodectus hasselti), sacrificing themselves to mate successfully with female spiders. However, black widow spiders are unique as they purposely try to get the female spider to cannibalize them during mating. While the males in other insects that have cannibalistic mating try to escape, male redback spiders actually perform a somersault to get closer to the female’s mouth during mating to promote their cannibalization.
Dr. Andrade then completed her PhD at Cornell University in Neurobiology and behaviour, furthering her studies on cannibalistic spider mating. She currently has her own la
There was a time in her career when Maydianne Andrade didn’t dwell on the issue of representation in science.
That began to change in after taking an implicit association test. The results surprised her.
“I found I had negative associations with Blackness and positive associations with whiteness,” says Andrade, who was born in Jamaica before immigrating to Vancouver with her parents at age three.
“After spending a lot of time and energy trying to dispel the results and debunk the test, I realized it was something I should pay more attention to.”
Andrade, who was recently appointed University Professor, a designation that represents the most prestigious academic rank at U of T, turned down opportunities for years to talk about her experience.
“Being a Black woman in my position meant I was unusual. I was constantly being asked to give talks about equity and diversity, but I always said no because it wasn’t in my area of expertise,” she says.
The test made her interested in the research literature about equity and representation, and she began to appreciate the measurable effect of bias — including its influence on how institutions function.
It’s a big reason why sh
Maydianne Andrade
Research Interests
The goal of my research is to understand how the reproductive behaviours of males and females evolve through the interaction of sexual and natural selection in variable ecological contexts, and how this shapes individual phenotypes and population-level characteristics. My work incorporates laboratory and field studies to examine mechanisms of sexual selection, and fitness effects of phenotypic and life history traits that affect mating success.
Keywords:
- mating systems
- sexual selection
- behavioural ecology
- developmental plasticity
Research Area: Conservation, Ecology & Evolution, Neuroscience & Behvaiour
Current Research
Recent areas of research focus include:
- Links between developmental plasticity & sexual selection.
- Mechanisms of chemical & vibratory communication
- Opportunistic mating tactics & demography
- Dynamic interactions of inter-male competition & female choice
Co-authors
- Andrew MasonProfessor, Department of Biological Sciences, University of TorontoVerified email at
- Luciana BaruffaldiResearch Associate (Andrade Laboratory)- University of TorontoVerified email at
- Matt BruceEcologist, Arthur Rylah Institute for Environmental ResearchVerified email at
- Marie (Mariella) HerbersteinLeibniz Institute for the Analysis of Biodiversity Change & Macquarie University, Sydney, AustraliaVerified email at
- Darryl GwynneProfessor of Biology, University of TorontoVerified email at
- David PunzalanDepartment of Biology, University of VictoriaVerified email at
- Monica MoweryCity University of New York, York CollegeVerified email at
- William BrownProfessor of Biology, State University of New York at FredoniaVerified email at
- Yael LubinBen-Gurion UniversityVerified email at
- Jutta M SchneiderProfessor für Verhaltensbiologie, Universität HamburgVerified
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