From Science:
Among the most spectacular phenomena in nature is the sight of millions of desert locust (Schistocerca gregaria) juveniles marching together, flowing like a river through the arid habitat of North Africa and consuming vegetation as they go before molting to become devastating swarms of winged adults. Understanding how and why locusts exhibit aligned collective motion is vital for predicting and managing outbreaks. However, present knowledge of the rules that govern the emergence of such complex, patterned behavior and decision-making is based on a handful of theoretical models that recapitulate only some aspects of the observed behavioral patterns. On page 995 of this issue, Sayin et al. (1) describe the integration of field, laboratory, and virtual reality studies to show that prevailing models for explaining collective motion in locusts, and perhaps other systems as well, require revision.
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