Behaviour of group-living outbreaking insects

昆虫的爆发，从沸腾的蝗虫群到蠕动的毛毛虫群，可能是壮观的，不仅是因为它们的数量，也是因为许多个体协同行动和进食的方式。这种集体行为模式是一种新兴的群体属性，源于个体对彼此和环境的反应。这种出现意味着个体之间的相互作用产生反馈环，导致无法从个人行为中预测的群体行为。因此，研究群体行为及其如何从个体行为中产生，对于理解群体生活物种的生态是必要的。据了解，森林帐篷毛虫是加拿大大部分地区的群体生活暴发森林害虫。这些毛毛虫成群结队地生活在休息地点和觅食地点之间，在它们身后放置信息素踪迹。我的研究目的是展示个体行为如何产生在群落水平上观察到的动态，并确定这些动态在物种生态中所起的作用。具体地说，我打算回答的问题是：1.群体如何在一起并保持同步？2.食物质量如何影响毛毛虫进餐的时间和持续时间？4和3.对前两个问题的回答是如何形成群体集体觅食模式的？9)我的研究使用了自下而上的方法，从表征行为并确定涉及的最接近的机制开始。对个体毛虫的观察将被用来建立计算机模型，其预测将与野外群体的行为进行比较。他们表示，这一研究计划将通过解释群体如何集体决定何时何地进食，为行为生态学的基础科学带来重要的见解。此外，它还将通过洞察群体动力学在暴发昆虫的个体和种群生态中的作用，为应用昆虫学做出贡献。

Insect outbreaks, from seething swarms of locusts to writhing masses of caterpillars, can be spectacular, not only by their sheer numbers, but also by the way multitudes of individuals move and feed in concert. This pattern of collective behaviour is an emergent group property that arises from the responses of individuals to each other and to the environment.  Emergence means that interactions between individuals generate feedback loops leading to group behaviour that cannot be predicted from the behaviour of individuals.  Therefore,  studying the behaviour of groups, and how it emerges from that of individuals, is necessary to understand the ecology of group-living species.     The forest tent caterpillar is a group-living outbreaking forest pest across most of Canada. These caterpillars live in colonies that travel together between resting and feeding sites, laying pheromone trails behind them.  The purpose of my research is to show how individual behaviour generates the dynamics observed at the colony level, and to determine the role played by these dynamics in the species' ecology. Specifically, the questions I intend to answer are: 1. How do colonies stay together and keep synchronized?  2. How does food quality influence the timing and duration of caterpillar meals?  And, 3. How do patterns of colony collective foraging emerge from the answers to the previous two questions?     My research uses a bottom-up approach, starting by characterizing behaviour and determining the proximate mechanisms involved. Observations of individual caterpillars will be used to build computer models, whose predictions will be compared with the behaviour of colonies in the field.     This research programme will bring important insights to fundamental science in behavioural ecology by explaining how groups collectively make choices about when and where to feed.  It will also contribute to applied entomology by shedding insight into the role of group dynamics in both the individual and population ecology of outbreaking insects.