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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTAMP:20260605T230032Z
UID:https://www.ab.mpg.de/events/42651/2736
DTSTART:20251028T093000Z
DTEND:20251028T103000Z
CLASS:PUBLIC
CREATED:20250812T125031Z
DESCRIPTION: Locusts offer a powerful model for studying social plasticity 
 and collective behavior. Adapted to extreme environmental fluctuations\, t
 hey can rapidly transition between solitary\, cryptic grasshoppers and swa
 rm-forming gregarious ones. Despite their importance as a model system and
  the severe humanitarian consequences of locust swarms\, the mechanisms un
 derlying this behavioral plasticity and the initiation of swarming remain 
 poorly understood. In this talk\, I will present our work investigating th
 e neural and behavioral basis of these transitions\, focusing on the senso
 ry representation of conspecifics and the local interaction rules that dri
 ve the onset of coordinated swarm movement. We find that crowding enhances
  olfactory sensitivity: gregarious locusts become more responsive to food 
 odors in the presence of other locusts\, an adaptation likely to facilitat
 e foraging within dense swarms. When moving between feeding sites\, gregar
 ious locusts form cohesive groups in which visual cues from conspecifics a
 re both necessary and sufficient to sustain coordination. Notably\, while 
 solitary and gregarious locusts both detect visual motion cues\, only greg
 arious animals actively pursue them\, suggesting a phase-dependent change 
 in visual processing that promotes collective migration. By combining deta
 iled behavioral analyses\, transcriptomics\, and neural mapping\, we are d
 issecting the mechanisms that mediate these transitions. I will share curr
 ent findings and outline future directions in our research on the proximat
 e basis of swarm formation in one of the world’s most devastating pest s
 pecies.\nSpeaker: Einat Couzin-Fuchs
LAST-MODIFIED:20250923T124857Z
LOCATION:Bückle St. 5a\, 78467 Konstanz\, Room: Seminar room MPI-AB Bückl
 estrasse + Online
ORGANIZER;CN=Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior:mailto:gabriella.gall@
 ab.mpg.de
SUMMARY:Institute Seminar by Einat Couzin-Fuchs: Sensory flexibility in the
  desert locust - from social cues to collective migrations
URL;VALUE=URI:https://www.ab.mpg.de/events/42651/2736
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