• Biological monitoring.
• Phenology
  
• Distribution & breeding trends of butterflies in relation to habitat fragmentation, land management and climate (especially thermally constrained species such as Silver-spotted Skipper).
• Sussex Branch Butterfly Conservation Sub-committee member.
• Butterfly transect recorder for Malling Down Sussex Wildlife Trust Reserve, Lewes.

Field research assistant to Exeter University 2011

Metapopulation dynamics and climate change in a model system: The Silver-spotted Skipper (NERC project)

Co-authored paper:
Range expansion through fragmented landscapes under a variable climate.
Ecology Letters 23 MAY 2013 
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/ele.12129/full

Field research assistant to Exeter University 2010:

Metapopulation dynamics and climate change in a model system: The Silver-spotted Skipper (NERC project)

Planet Earth podcast

The Lyons Den. An Alternative Natural History of Sussex 

Field research assistant to Exeter University 2009:

Metapopulation dynamics and climate change in a model system: The Silver-spotted Skipper (NERC project)
 

Lawson, C. R., Bennie, J. J., Thomas, C.D., Wilson, R.J. 2012. Local and landscape management of an expanding range margin under climate change. Journal of Applied Ecology, 49, 552–561
Article first published online: 23 JAN 2012:

The range expansion of the silver-spotted skipper butterfly:
Lessons for conservation under climate change
BENNIE, J.J.1, THOMAS, C. D.2, LAWSON, C.1, HODGSON, J.2,
WILSON, R.J.1 (1 University of Exeter, 2 University of York)

Field research assistant to Leeds University 2000:

The status and conservation of the silver-spotted skipper Hesperia comma in Britain.

Acknowledged in the following papers:

Davies, Z. G., R. J. Wilson, H. M. C. Burton, K. K. N. Ericson, P. M. Ewin, S. C. Glencross, A. N. Goodhand, S. Hanna, C. T. R. Holloway, Leaper. R, J. H. Mellings, and C. D. Thomas. 2001. The status and conservation of the silver-spotted skipper Hesperia comma in Britain: confidential report to English Nature and Butterfly Conservation.

Thomas, C.D., Bodsworth, E.J., Wilson, R.J., Simmons, A.D., Davies, Z.G., Musche, M. and Conradt, L. (2001) Ecological and evolutionary processes at expanding range margins. Nature, 411 (4837). pp. 577-581. ISSN 0028-0836

Davies, Z. G., R. J. Wilson, T. M. Brereton, and C. D. Thomas. 2005. The re-expansion and improving status of the silver-spotted skipper butterfly (Hesperia comma) in Britain: a metapopulation success story. Biological Conservation 124: 189-198. 

Modelling the effect of habitat fragmentation on range expansion in a butterfly

Twitter: @ctrh