Traversing a treacherous landscape: Modelling caterpillar movement and behaviour on whole plants at multiple scales.

毛毛虫如何在植物上移动以及它们在哪里觅食是培育对这些害虫具有抗性的植物的关键。我们的研究项目将生成毛毛虫在虚拟植物上行为的计算机模型，这些模型以现实的方式与植物生长过程中不断变化的结构、微结构和环境相互作用。我们提供了一套工具，这些工具将成为未来重要研究议程的基石，包括觅食毛毛虫的生态学、杀虫剂喷雾应用的优化以及新型转基因植物的开发，这些都是澳大利亚农业未来的核心。

How caterpillars move on plants and where they feed is central to developing plants resistant to these insect pests. Our research program will generate computer models of caterpillar behaviour on virtual plants that interact in realistic ways with the changing structure of the plant as it grows, its micro-architecture and environment. We provide a set of tools that will form the cornerstone of important future research agendas in the ecology of foraging caterpillars, optimisation of insecticide spray application, and the development of novel genetically transformed plants for insect control central to the future of Australian agriculture.