Greg recently visited Texas A & M University and received the Perry Adkisson Distinguished Speaker Award. Special thanks to the Department of Entomology, EEB, and especially the Entomology Graduate Student Association who know how to show someone a good night on the town.

Please see the potential Honours reseach projects available in the lab for the 2010 investigating the ecology and evolution of phenotypic plasticity in your choice of either locusts or water fleas. Can it possibly get any better?

Play a cannibal locust video game inspired by Bazazi et al. (2008) Collective motion and cannibalism in locust marching bands, Current Biology 18(10), 735-739.

A recent locust paper in Science by our friends and collaborators Anstey et al. has been getting tons of press - including this hilarious send up about locusts going mental. Also be sure to check out Steve Rogers doing a TV interview.

The lab and our collaborators recently received two grants from the Australian Research Council. These new projects will support our research into using unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to track individual locust movements, developing predictive models of locust migratory band movement, and developing a general ecological and evolutionary modeling framework based on nutritional ecology and individual state-space models.

LP0989291 Dr GA Sword; Dr S Sukkarieh; Prof SJ Simpson; Dr GM Brooker; Mr PA Spurgin

Project Title: Autonomous tracking and predictive modelling of Australian plague locust migratory band movement

2009 : $ 120,000
2010 : $ 120,000
2011 : $ 100,000


Project Summary
We will use advances in robotics, engineering, mathematics and biology to develop a new computer model for the control of one of the world's most damaging pest insects: locusts. Autonomous aerial robotic systems will be used to collect data on Australian plague locusts travelling in devastating migratory bands. These data on band movement and the behaviour of individual locusts within the band will be used to develop a particle physics-inspired predictive model of migratory band movement, which will be used to optimise locust control operations. Economic, environmental and social benefits will arise through reductions in the amount of time, money, manpower and insecticides necessary to combat locust outbreaks.

Note that the Linkage project is in collaboration with the ARC Centre of Excellence for Autonomous Systems and the Australian Plague Locust Commission.


DP0985137 Prof SJ Simpson; Dr GA Sword; Dr M Charleston; Dr ID Couzin; A/Prof D Raubenheimer

Project Title: Heterarchical modelling of nutritional ecology: from individuals to communities

2009 : $ 130,000
2010 : $ 130,000
2011 : $ 130,000


Project Summary
The project will combine advances in nutritional theory, agentbased modelling and landscape ecology to produce a modelling framework with which to understand the interrelationships between the physiology and behaviour of individual organisms and the populations, communities and ecosystems in which they reside. The resulting computational model will provide a major new initiative in quantitative ecology and allow specific practical problems to be addressed in relation to agricultural pests, invasive species, conservation biology and animal production systems.

Congratulations to Steve Simpson for winning the 2008 Australian Museum Eureka Prize for Scientific Research! See the details here.

Katie Robinson recently joined the lab as a PhD student. She will be working on the functional genomics of locust migratory behaviour project.

Work in the lab is featured in an episode of Mega Disasters that has been airing on the History Channel. The 'Super Swarm' episode features interviews and footage shot in the the lab at the University of Sydney as well as working in the field on Mormon crickets in Utah during the summer of 2007. Be afraid!!! And don't forget to buy the DVD, a perfect gift just in time for the holidays (no, we won't make any $$$ from it).

Donya Tohidi-Esfahani and Karine Berthier have joined the lab as ARC Postdoctoral Fellows. Donya will be working primarily on the locust functional genomics project while Karine will focus on locust population genetics, dynamics and demography.

A nice article on swarming featuring our friend and collaborator Iain Couzin recently appeared in The New York Times.

The application deadline has passed for our two recently advertised postdoc positions. We received an impressive 55 applications!

We've often wondered if migratory bands of Mormon crickets move at night, and if so, how these movements relate to the direction they travel during the day. A video posted to YouTube clearly shows that they are active at night, but its hard to tell if there is any directional movement. The clip was shot by a guy who apparently wiped out on his motorcycle after running over a slippery mess of Mormon crickets cannibalizing each other on the road at night outside Austin, NV.



Just for fun, I uploaded a cool video I shot of a Mormon cricket band crossing a dirt road in NE Utah.

Someone uploaded an old story about radiotracking Mormon crickets that originally aired on the National Geographic Channel a few years ago.

Check it out:


Mormon Crickets - The best bloopers are a click away

For a good laugh, check out the 2nd comment on the original page. Do I hear a foghorn? Hilarious!

We received an ARC Discovery Grant to fund a collaborative project with Le Kang's lab at the Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences to study the functional genomics of locust migratory behaviour. The project will utilise a 10,000 unigene microarry recently developed by Kang's lab. We plan to use a comparative approach between the Migratory locust, Locusta migratoria, and the Australian Plague locust, Chortoicetes terminifera, to identify candidate genes involved in the expression of the behavioural phase change in locusts. RNAi gene knockdown experiments in conjunction with our automated video tracking behavioural assay system will be used to quantify the phenotypic effects of the candidate behavioural genes.

DP0877542 Dr GA Sword; Prof SJ Simpson; Dr N Lo; Prof L Kang
Project Title : The functional genomics of locust migratory behaviourApproved

2008 : $ 203,000
2009 : $ 213,000
2010 : $ 203,000

Primary RFCD 2707 ECOLOGY AND EVOLUTION

Administering Organisation: The University of Sydney

Project Summary
Unravelling the molecular genetic basis of locust migratory behaviour will place Australia at the forefront of international biological research and simultaneously contribute to the development of new and safer ways to manage these notorious agricultural pests. We will use genomics and gene expression analyses to identify the suite of genes involved in the behavioural changes that catalyse locust swarm formation and migration. This collaborative study will enhance international relations with China, foster the development of gene-focused locust control strategies, and provide an exemplar study of an important and complex problem faced by Australia and international community.

Rong Ji has joined the lab for the next year as a Visiting Scientist from the Xinjiang Normal University in China. She is an expert in the application of remote sensing and GIS to monitor locust habitats in China and will be working in conjunction with the APLC to conduct similar studies here in Australia.

Darron Cullen joined the lab to begin a PhD and will be working on the functional genomics project. Darron received a International postgraduate scholarship to come to Sydney from the University of Oxford where he completed both his BSc and MSc.

Alanna Smith has joined the lab to do an Honours project investigating the expression of density-dependent warning colouration in the stick insect, Podacanthus wilkinsoni.

Greg Sword was recently selected as one of only a handful of early career scientists to attend the EMBO World Practical Course on DNA Microarrays to be held from 11-16 August at the Center for Marine Science and Technology, Manonmaniam Sundarnar University in TamilNadu, India. The timing is perfect as we are preparing for our collaborative project on locust functional genomics with Le Kang's lab in China.

Marie-Pierre Chapuis has joined the lab as a Marie-Currie Postdoctoral Fellow to work on the population genetics of the Australian Plague locust. Marie has much needed experience dealing with the trials and tribulations of microsatellite development in locusts, as well as an outstanding background in population genetics data analysis.

Julie-Anne Popple arrived to begin her PhD as an APA(I) as part of the our recent ARC Linkage grant to study the population genetics and migratory behaviour of the Australian Plague Locust. Julie-Anne joins us from the University of Queensland where she recently completed an Honours degree studying glow worms. Good luck, Julie-Anne!

We received an ARC Linkage grant in collaboration with the Australian Plague Locust Commission (APLC) to study the population genetics and migratory behaviour of the Australian Plague Locust (Chortoicetes terminifera). The project will include the development of DNA microsatellites to assess continental scale population genetic structure and potentially elucidate migration routes. We will also investigate the expression of density-dependent behavioural phase change in Chortoicetes using an automated video-tracking system used in conjunction with laboratory behavioural assays.

LP0669080 Prof SJ Simpson; Dr GA Sword; Mr L McCulloch; Ms M Chapuis; Dr MJ Steinbauer
Project Title: Australian plague locust population genetics and migratory behaviour

2006 : $80,000
2007 : $137,000
2008 : $119,500
2009 : $62,500

Primary RFCD 2702 GENETICS
APA(I) Award(s): 1
APDI: Ms M Chapuis

Partner Organisation(s)
Department of Agriculture, Fisheries & Forestry
Administering Institution
The University of Sydney

Project Summary
The project will allow improved monitoring and forecasting of locusts in Australia and thereby help prevent locust outbreaks. Benefits will arise directly through greater effectiveness in reducing locust damage to crops, and indirectly to Australian rural industry generally through the economic benefits of reduced losses and locust control costs. Environmental and social benefits will also arise from reduced, better targeted use of chemical insecticides. This in turn can produce secondary economic benefits, e.g. through enhanced growth and profitability of the organic beef industry within the main locust-outbreak