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From scattered to focused: Task-dependent connectivity in honey bees, with midge swarms and bird flocks
Phys. Rev. E 113, 044403 – Published 2 April, 2026
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/9mfj-2jh2
Abstract
Collective motion in biological swarms emerges from local interactions among individuals with limited sensing and cognition, offering valuable insights for decentralized engineered systems. This study presents a systematic framework for extracting interaction graphs from multiagent trajectory data. Three graph identification methods, sparse regression, Granger causality, and cross-correlation, together with geometric anisotropy analysis, are applied to experimental recordings of honey bees during scattered and focused return-to-hive behaviors, aggregations of midges, and flocking passerine jackdaws. Connectivity analysis reveals task-dependent interaction structures: scattered honey bees exhibit causal interactions with up to ten neighbors, whereas focused bees interact with only two to three agents, with midges showing slightly lower connectivity. Cross-correlation analysis indicated honey bees exhibit distance-sensitivity in close proximity, while flocking birds exhibit a distance-dependent correlation decline. These results highlight diverse coordination mechanisms relevant to bio-inspired networked systems.
Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)
synopsis
What Network Structures Reveal About the Birds and the Bees
Representing bird flocks and insect swarms as nodes connected in a complex structure yields new insights into animal collective behavior.
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