South Australian Museum - North Terrace, Adelaide, South Australia 5000

Biography

B.sc.(Hons) Adelaide, D.Phil. (Oxon).

Dr Watts retired from the position of Chief Scientist at the Museum in 2001. Prior to that he had been head of the Museum's Evolutionary Biology Unit (and it predecessors) for some 20 years. During this time he worked mainly on the taxonomy and phylogeny of Australasian rodents. He also maintained an interest in the taxonomy of Australia water beetles.

Since retirement he has concentrated on the taxonomy of Australian water beetles (other than Elmidae and Hydraenidae) with the aim of producing guides to the identification of adults to species and larvae to genus.

At the present time his work is mainly on the subterranean (stygobitic) carnivorous water beetles (Dytiscidae) and a revision of the Australian Marsh beetles (Scirtidae). This work involves close collaboration with colleagues in Australia and overseas. Much of the work involves the use of DNA sequence data which is provided by colleagues in the Museum's Evolutionary Biology Unit.

Major Publications: (Top 5)

Watts C.H.S. and Aslin H.J. 1981 Rodents of Australia. Angus and Robertson; Sydney, Australia.

Remko Leys, Chris H.S.Watts, Steve J.B.Cooper and William F.Humphreys, 2003. Evolution of subterranean diving beetles (Coleoptera: Dytiscidae: Hydroporini, Bidessini) in the arid Zone of Australia. Evolution 57, 2819-2834.

Watts, C.H.S., 2002. Checklists &guides to the identification, to genus, of adult & larval Australian water beetles of the families Dytiscidae, Noteridae, Hygrobiidae, Haliplidae, Gyrinidae, Hydraenidae and the superfamily Hydrophiloidea (Insecta: Coleoptera). Cooperative Research Centre for freshwater Ecology (Albury, Australia) Guide no 43.

Watts C.H.S., 2007. Revision of Australian Pseudomicrocara Armstrong (Coleoptera: Scirtidae) Transactions of the Royal Society of South Australia.131; In press.

Watts C.H.S. & Humphreys, W. F., 2006. Twenty six new Dytiscidae (Coleoptera) of the genera Limbodessus Guignot and Nirripirti Watts and Humphreys, from underground waters in Australia. Transactions of the Royal Society of South Australia, 130;123-185.