Maud Combe

The paper re-analyzes ant movement data to show that black garden ants use directional information in their search behavior, leading to biased random walks that improve search efficiency.

The paper uses a closed-loop virtual-reality system to study how schooling fish integrate social information, finding that fish primarily respond to the most influential neighbor.

Real rummy-nose tetras follow a projected, anamorphically rendered virtual conspecific in a low-cost open-source 3D-tracked VR bowl, largely matching its speed and depth; a moving sphere elicits weak following.

The study finds that larger ants in Messor barbarus are more sensitive to temperature changes than smaller ants, which may influence their foraging activity timing and colony responses to warming.