Project description
Flipping the script on insect energetics
Insects frequently navigate the world upside down to forage or evade predators, but the metabolic price of walking on inverted surfaces remains a scientific mystery. Existing theories offer conflicting predictions about how gravity influences energy expenditure in such extreme orientations. Supported by the Marie Sklodowska Curie Actions programme, the InvertInsects project will focus on the insect Sungaya aeta to measure locomotion across a full 360-degree range of inclination. It will quantify how body size and physical payloads affect the cost of climbing. These insights will provide a blueprint for developing efficient biomimetic climbing robots and improving pest management strategies.
Objective
Walking on inverted surfaces— or upside down— is crucial for insects when foraging, evading predators, or safely laying eggs underneath leaves. Animals often choose how to locomote depending on the associated energetic costs; yet, the costs of locomotion on inverted surfaces remain unknown, and existing theories of locomotor energetics yield contrasting predictions when extrapolated to inverted locomotion. This gap limits our understanding not only of insect biology but also of what determines animals’ energy expenditure when they locomote. To address these issues, I will quantify the metabolic and mechanical costs of inverted locomotion in stick insects of the species Sungaya aeta, chosen as a model for their climbing ability, ease of husbandry, and wide size range. Methodological barriers have so far hindered such studies: no system allowed insects to walk freely and continuously on inverted surfaces while compensating for their motion, thus allowing respirometry measurements. Moreover, marker-based tracking interfered with their movement, and markerless tracking required laborious manual annotation. To overcome these barriers, I will integrate a respirometry and a markerless motion capture system with a world-unique infinite walking plane, developed by the host lab, enabling untethered and self-guided locomotion at any incline. With this setup, I will quantify (i) the energetic costs of locomotion across surface inclinations spanning 360°, (ii) how these costs change with the payload carried by the insect, and (iii) how they scale with body size. InvertInsects will shed light on the physiological demands of a widespread, ecologically relevant, yet understudied insect behaviour, and simultaneously advance our theories on the energy demands of animal locomotion. In the long term, its outcomes may inspire biomimetic robots with improved climbing efficiency and support sustainable agriculture and biodiversity conservation by controlling invasive insects’ mobility.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
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CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- agricultural sciences agriculture, forestry, and fisheries agriculture sustainable agriculture
- natural sciences biological sciences biodiversity conservation
- natural sciences biological sciences zoology entomology
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Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
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Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.1.2 - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)
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Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-PF-EF - HORIZON TMA MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
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(opens in new window) HORIZON-MSCA-2025-PF
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SW7 2AZ London
United Kingdom
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