An Algorithm to Explain Mormon Cricket Movments
Iain Couzin, a beautiful mind over at Edge, has an explanation for those swarms of Mormon crickets. I’ve run over my share of crickets on the roads of Utah, but Iain has figured out why they all seem to be going across the road in the same direction.
If you look at these swarms, all of the individuals are marching in the same direction, and it looks like cooperative behavior. Perhaps they have come to a collective decision to move from one place to another. We investigated this collective decision, and what really makes this system work in the case of the Mormon cricket is cannibalism.
You think of these as vegetarian insects—they’re crop pests—but each individual tries to eat the other individuals when they run short of protein or salt, and they’re very deprived of these in the natural environment. As soon as they become short of these essential nutrients, they start trying to bite the other individuals, and they have evolved to have really big aggressive jaws and armor plating over themselves, but the one area you can’t defend is the rear end of the individual—it has to defecate, there has to be a hole there—and so they tend to specifically bite the rear end of individuals. It is the sight of others approaching and this biting behavior that causes individuals to move away from those coming towards them. This need to eat other individuals means you are attracted to individuals moving away from you, and so this simple algorithm essentially means the whole swarm starts moving as a collective.
Interesting stuff. At this point, I’m tempted to try to draw a parallel between Mormon cricket behavior and the behavior of Mormons themselves, but I’ll leave that up to you. The analogy would probably apply to me equally well anyway.
Tags: emergent behavior, Mormon crickets, research, science, swarm
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Seth R. said,
March 14, 2008 @ 8:17 am
Ugly little suckers.
March 14, 2008 @ 11:02 am
Ugly and fascinating. The first time I saw one (and if you see one, you’re bound to see lots) was at scout camp. Those ovipositors looked really mean.
March 16, 2008 @ 6:57 am
I wish this post was about the sport instead of the bug.
March 16, 2008 @ 7:16 am
Mormon’s play cricket?
March 16, 2008 @ 10:12 am
Yeah, hubby and I got our first look at those suckers going across Idaho. The highway was read with all the blood from people running over them as they drove. I remember thinking, “no wonder they were so grateful for the seagulls. These things are HUGE!” We were like tourists the way we got out of the car, took pictures, etc. Anyway, interesting post.
March 17, 2008 @ 9:41 am
Well, leave out the Mormon part.
Acupuncture Resources said,
March 30, 2008 @ 8:32 am
INTERESTING OBSERVATION: If you ever get a chance to help out a Christian Evangelist who witnesses to the Mormons, notice how Mormons will immediately flip over any tract you give them. Why? They’re looking for the official Mormon church logo on the back to see if what you gave them is “church approved” and okay to read.