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MechAnt SIGNED

Behavioural biomechanics of insect herbivory - a case study on leaf-cutter ants

Total Cost €

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EC-Contrib. €

0

Partnership

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 MechAnt project word cloud

Explore the words cloud of the MechAnt project. It provides you a very rough idea of what is the project "MechAnt" about.

security    dominant    integrating    threat    pose    reveal    determinant    pave    strategies    engineering    ing    leaf    plant    toughness    material    cut    parties    ease    mandibular    wear    rigorous    foragers    little    adaptive    terrestrial    social    insights    link    materials    combine    pest    labour    differently    transform    relationship    demography    ranging    interactions    computer    proposes    global    separate    cutter    ontogeny    plants    organisation    ergonomic    continuing    determinants    sized    individual    vision    feeders    herbivore    ecology    mechant    workers    model    machine    performance    herbivorous    species    investigation    behavioural    constraints    protection    underpinning    castes    biomechanical    principal    quantitatively    mechanical    world    energetic    eusocial    hence    colonies    ecosystems    learning    leaves    colony    yield    foraging    ants    evolution    highlight    insects    nano    herbivores    ant    food    mechanics    science    division    engineers    crop    feeding    criteria    insect    relations    ecosystem    cutting    innovations    hypothesis    physical   

Project "MechAnt" data sheet

The following table provides information about the project.

Coordinator
IMPERIAL COLLEGE OF SCIENCE TECHNOLOGY AND MEDICINE 

Organization address
address: SOUTH KENSINGTON CAMPUS EXHIBITION ROAD
city: LONDON
postcode: SW7 2AZ
website: http://www.imperial.ac.uk/

contact info
title: n.a.
name: n.a.
surname: n.a.
function: n.a.
email: n.a.
telephone: n.a.
fax: n.a.

 Coordinator Country United Kingdom [UK]
 Total cost 1˙998˙764 €
 EC max contribution 1˙998˙764 € (100%)
 Programme 1. H2020-EU.1.1. (EXCELLENT SCIENCE - European Research Council (ERC))
 Code Call ERC-2019-STG
 Funding Scheme ERC-STG
 Starting year 2020
 Duration (year-month-day) from 2020-01-01   to  2024-12-31

 Partnership

Take a look of project's partnership.

# participants  country  role  EC contrib. [€] 
1    IMPERIAL COLLEGE OF SCIENCE TECHNOLOGY AND MEDICINE UK (LONDON) coordinator 1˙998˙764.00

Map

 Project objective

Insect herbivores are a dominant element in terrestrial ecosystems, and pose a continuing threat to global food security. However, little is known about a key determinant of insect herbivore success: the mechanics of plant-feeding. MechAnt proposes to transform our understanding of insect-plant relations by providing a rigorous biomechanical investigation into how insects cut leaves, using the major ecosystem engineers and principal insect pest of the New World, the leaf-cutter ants, as a model system. Specifically, MechAnt will combine the traditionally separate fields of behavioural ecology, mechanical engineering, materials science, computer vision and machine learning to investigate: (1) the mechanical and energetic constraints determining the cutting ability, and ontogeny of task choice of differently-sized workers, and hence the adaptive value of physical castes in eusocial insects; (2) the relationship between plant material properties, ease of cutting, and mandibular wear, which will reveal the key mechanical determinants of plant-herbivore species interactions; (3) the division of labour, ontogeny and demography of leaf-cutter colonies foraging on leaves of different “toughness”, testing the hypothesis that leaf-cutter colonies are organised according to ergonomic criteria. By integrating insights ranging from nano-scale mechanics up to whole-colony ecology, MechAnt will quantitatively link the mechanical properties of plants with the performance of individual foragers, the organisation of foraging parties, and the demography and social organisation of leaf-cutter ant colonies. The resulting understanding of the biomechanical innovations underpinning the success of the leaf-cutter ants will yield insights into the behavioural ecology of advanced plant-feeders, highlight the role of biomechanical constraints in the behaviour and evolution of herbivorous insects, and pave the way for the development of novel crop protection strategies.

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The information about "MECHANT" are provided by the European Opendata Portal: CORDIS opendata.

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