CNRS Researcher
Personnal webpage / Google Scholar / ResearchGate
Project summary :
Why do cognition evolve? And how? What are the influences social and ecological environments? A major goal of our research is to understand how cognitive processes mediate adaptive behaviour in individuals, and their interactions within groups and populations, with a particular focus on challenging foraging tasks (navigation, nutrient balancing, social interactions). Our work focuses on small brained insects that exhibit both an impressive range of cognitive capacities and a unique spectrum of social forms. The approach combines behavioural experiments (in the lab and in the field) with simulations of computer models.
Key words :
Bumblebees / honey bees / fruit flies / hornet / cognition / nutrition / collective behaviour / movement ecology / computational modeling / citizen science
Selected publications :
Lihoreau M, Gomez-Moracho T, Pasquaretta C, Costa JT, Buhl J (2018). Social nutrition: an emerging field in insect science. Current Opinion in Insect Science. 28:73-80
Wong ACN, Wang QP, Morimoto J, Senior AM, Lihoreau M, Neely GG, Simpson SJ, Ponton F (2017). Gut microbiota modifies olfactory-guided microbial attraction in Drosophila. Current Biology. 27:2397-2404
Lihoreau M, Charleston MA, Senior AM, Clissold FJ, Raubenheimer D, Simpson SJ, Buhl J (2017). Collective foraging in spatially complex nutritional environments. Philosophical Transactions B. 372:20160238
Klein S, Cabirol A, Devaud JM, Barron AB, Lihoreau M (2017). Why bees are so vulnerable to environmental stressors. Trends in Ecology and Evolution. 32:268-278
Lihoreau M, Buhl J, Charleston MA, Sword GAS, Raubenheimer D, Simpson SJ (2015). Nutritional ecology beyond the individual: a conceptual framework for integrating nutrition and social interactions. Ecology Letters. 18:273-286.
Lihoreau M, Raine NE, Reynolds AM, Stelzer RJ, Lim KS, Smith AD, Osborne JL, Chittka L (2012) Radar tracking and motion sensitive cameras on flowers reveal the development of pollinator multi-destination routes over large spatial scales. PLoS Biology 10:e1001392.
Lihoreau M, Chittka L, Raine NE (2010) Travel optimization by foraging bumblebees through re-adjustments of traplines after discovery of new feeding locations. American Naturalist 176:744-767.
Lab members:
Cristian Pasquaretta (Postdoc)
I am an ethologist using network tools to study complex phenomena. My research focuses on social information transfer in animal groups and its consequences on social interactions. My current project aims at evaluating and modeling the role of social and competitive interactions on resource partitioning in bees.Email:cristian.pasquaretta@univ-tlse3.fr / Phone: +33 5 61 55 84 44/ Door: 205, building 4R3
Personnal webpage / Google Scholar / ResearchGate
Tamara Gomez Moracho (Postdoc)
I am interested in host-parasite interactions. My research focuses on honeybee parasites such as Nosema. My current project aims to evaluate the effects of pathogens on the behaviour, cognition and physiological development of bees.Email:tamara.gomez@univ-tlse3.fr / Phone: +33 5 61 55 84 44 / Door: 205, building 4R3
Alexandre Dore (PhD student, co-sup. Hervé Aubert LAAS/CNRS)
I am developing and calibrating new radar tools to study the behaviour of untagged insects with great precision in the field.Email: adore@laas.fr
Thibault Dubois (PhD student, co-sup. Andrew Barron Maquarie University)
I am an ecologist with interests in modelling and statistics, as well as animal behaviour. My PhD project focuses on how the individual foraging strategies of bees impact colony dynamics and pollination.Email: thibault.dubois@univ-tlse3.fr / Phone: +33 5 61 55 84 44 / Door: 205, building 4R3
Coline Monchanin (PhD student, co-sup. Jean-Marc Devaud, Andrew Barron - Maquarie University)
I am exploring the effects of heavy metal pollution and their effects combined with environmental stressors on honeybees behavior and cognition.
Stéphane Kraus (PhD student, co-sup. Jean-Marc Devaud)
