Context

• Recently Scientists have attempted to answer an important scientific question of how and why locusts collect together by the thousands in order to make a swarm.

How Locusts to form huge swarms?

• When lone locusts happen to come near each other (looking for food) and happen to touch each other, this tactile stimulation, even just in a little area of the back limbs, causes their behaviour to change.
• This mechanical stimulation affects a couple of nerves in the animal’s body, their behaviour changes, leading to their coming together.
• The central nervous system of the locust, the most important among them being serotonin which regulates mood and social behaviour is the mystery behind swarms.
• Their coming together triggers a mechanical (touch) and neurochemical (serotonin) stimulations to make crowding occur.

What is Serotonin?

• It is a monoamine neurotransmitter.
• It has a popular image as a contributor to feelings of well-being and happiness.
• Its actual biological function is complex and multifaceted, modulating cognition, reward, learning, memory, and numerous physiological processes such as vomiting and vasoconstriction.