Researchers clarify hydrodynamically how Ugi insects eat pizza efficiently

by PublicDomainImages

Is the larva of the insect belonging to the Diptera maggots , you have an image that will be digested gathered in large quantities, such as the carcasses of garbage and animal. Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology, who are studying "collective feeding behavior" that Ugi insects handle foods one after the other, why can a large number of maggots quickly handle food? We conducted experiments.

Black soldier fly larvae feed by forming a fountain around food | Journal of the Royal Society Interface
https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsif.2018.0735

Georgia Tech scientists figured out how maggots can eat so much, so fast | Ars Technica
https://arstechnica.com/science/2019/02/study-black-soldier-fly-maggots-form-fountains-to-feed-more-quickly/

Mr. Olga Schisikov of the graduate student who carried out the research said that "for the first time this is the first time that I have experimented about how much eating Ugi is eating and how to eat food" I am talking. Mr. Shishkov said that he also became interested in the dynamics of group behavior of Uda insects from a hydrodynamic point of view. "I was interested in whether we could apply fluid dynamics techniques to animal behavior," says Shishkov.

Mr. Shishkov 's laboratory got a large number of American larva larva, Uzugi from Grubbly Farms ' startup in Atlanta. Grubbly Farms is a startup aimed at supplying stable feeds for chickens and fish, and Ugiworm is a promising candidate to become its food.

Ugji insects of American Mizuabo feed on garbage, mainly fruits and vegetables, and you can eat twice as much food as yourself on the 1st. Humans generate as much as 1.4 billion tons of food waste every year, and Ugiworms can be a powerful solution as a garbage disposal clerk. Grubbly Farms thinks that it can make efficient food production and consumption by further turning the maggot to the feeding of domestic animals and aquaculture fish.

by Oleksandr Pidvalnyi

Individual larvae are very small, but maggots that grow on food are piled up like mountains. To observe the collective feeding behavior, the research team put 10,000 Ugi insects in a 10 gallon (about 38 liter) water tank, place food at the center, and use a camera attached to the top plate of the aquarium He said he recorded motion.

In addition, Shishikov et al. Introduced the particle image flow velocity measurement method (PIV), a method used for hydrodynamic studies. It is said that by analyzing the velocity distribution of maggot worms, we analyzed how the large group of Ugi worms are moving when eating food.

For example, when maggots eat pizza, the number of maggots that can be eaten at one time is limited because the surface area is limited. Even though it seems that a large number of maggots are wanting, Ugi insects which can actually eat food are limited, and Uda insects which can not eat are to wait until the maggot worm eating pizza leaves. When contact activity of such maggot beetle was measured and analyzed using PIV, Ugiworm had eaten only about 44% of pizza during the 5-minute feeding behavior and rest for the rest of the time I understood that.

When the resting Ugi worms stay around the pizza, the body of the maggot blocked other Uzi insects, and Ugiwa waiting behind can not be attached to pizza. Therefore, it was found that Ugji insects on standby got closer to pizza by taking "action like a fountain". "The new maggot worms move forward under the maggot worms, pushing up from the bottom up, and reaching the pizza," says Shishkov.

by Bruno Cantuária

This research result not only has the possibility of becoming able to predict "the rate at which Ugiworm eat a specific food" by making a feeding behavior model of Ugi insects, it also greatly contributes to the cultivation of Ugi worms That's right. When the maggot beetle of American Mizuab is raised in a case like a tank, it is said that the whole herd is likely to have heat during feeding behavior. In wild environments it is okay if you move in search of a cool place in the event of overheating, but in the space like a tank it is impossible to escape the maggot beetles and the entire herd may die due to overheating.

So Mr. Shishkov thinks that it is possible to develop an air conditioning system based on behavior of maggot worms and attach it to the bottom of the case and not to overheat the maggots during eating behavior and die . By doing this, it is said that Uzza farmers will be able to rearage more efficient maggots.

In addition, the movie which captured the appearance of actually trying to eat pizza in a large amount of maggot worms is kore. It is a strong scene for those who are not good at insects' images, but you can see how pizza is being eaten by maggots while they see them.

Snippet: Larva devour a pizza in 2 hours