Craigs research interests include the development of environmentally safe and effective tools for national border biosecurity and pest management, the determinants of establishment success when species are either accidentally or intentionally introduced to new regions, the role of intraspecific genetic variation in the establishment of organisms in new regions and tri-trophic interactions between parasitic wasps, weevils and plants.

His main research goals are to help prevent new pests from establishing in New Zealand, improve the rate of success in establishing intentionally introduced biological control agents, increase the efficacy of established biological control agents and minimise the environmental and economic impacts of pests in New Zealand.

Recent publications

Vink, C., Derraik, J., Phillips, C. and Sirvid, P. (2010). The invasive Australian Redback Spider Latrodectus hassltii Thorell 1870 (Araneae: Theridiidea). Current and potential distributions, and likely impacts. Biological Invasions 1-17. doi:10.1007/s10530-010-9885-6 Key: citeulike:8125529

Phillips, C.B., Vink, C.J., Blanchet, A. and Hoelmer, K.A. (2008). Hosts are more important than destinations: What genetic variation in Microctonus aethiopoides (Hymenoptera: Braconidae) means for foreign exploration for natural enemies. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 49: 467-476.

Phillips, C.B., Baird, D.B., Iline, I.I., McNeill, M.R., Proffitt, J.R., Goldson, S.L. and Kean, J.M. (2008). East meets West: Adaptive evolution of an insect introduced for biological control. Journal of Applied Ecology 45: 948-956. 

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