Skip to main content
School of Biological and Behavioural Sciences

Collective foraging decisions in a gregarious insect - how cockroaches 'talk' about food

Published:

PDRA Dr Mathieu Lihoreau, with colleagues in France and Belgium, have found that cockroaches recommend good food sources to each other by communicating through chemicals. This helps to explain why the insects are often found in large groups in kitchens late at night. Mathieu explained: “These observations coupled with simulations of a mathematical model indicate that cockroaches communicate through close contact when they are already on the food source.” The research has been published in Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology and has appeared widely in the popular press: for example, see QMUL Media - BBC News  - Telegraph - AOL News.

 

 

Back to top