Insect swarms and complexity

Insect swarms exhibit collective behaviors that emerge from the interactions between individual insects. In midges these interactions are thought to be governed by long-range acoustic signals from other insects in the swarm. A model developed by Gorbonos et al [1.] adds the long-range acoustic behavior into an equation of motion to describe midge swarm dynamics. This research compares the results of the previously described model to a random walk model with additional statistical weighting to mimic an insect's response to the acoustic signal. The results of this work may further our understanding of the role randomness plays in swarms and complexity.

[1.] Dan Gorbonos et al, New J. Phys. 2016, 18, 073042.