Surviving amongst cannibals | Max-Planck-Gesellschaft https://www.mpg.de/6358514/locusts-cannibalism-polyphenism
Beyond a certain population density, locusts form swarms with collective movement to keep the risk of cannibalism as low as possible. This is also the reason why the change in movement patterns developed at all in the course of evolution. The behavioural change from solitary individuals to gregarious individuals, called polyphenism, ensures the population’s survival. This discovery was made by scientists from the Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems, working in an international research team, using a computer simulation. Moreover, according to the findings, the threshold value at which the swarm disperses again is considerably lower than at swarm formation. This is important for the prevention of locust plagues, in which the insects destroy entire harvests and cause great devastation.
At just a few insects per square meter, they should