Three-dimensional time-resolved trajectories from laboratory insect swarms

• Published in: Scientific data Vol. 6; no. 1; p. 190036
• Main Authors: Sinhuber, Michael, van der Vaart, Kasper, Ni, Rui, Puckett, James G., Kelley, Douglas H., Ouellette, Nicholas T.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 05.03.2019; Nature Publishing Group
• Subjects: 639/766/530; 639/766/747; Data Descriptor; Humanities and Social Sciences; Laboratories; multidisciplinary; Science; Swarms
• ISSN: 2052-4463; 2052-4463
• DOI: 10.1038/sdata.2019.36

Aggregations of animals display complex and dynamic behaviour, both at the individual level and on the level of the group as a whole. Often, this behaviour is collective, so that the group exhibits properties that are distinct from those of the individuals. In insect swarms, the motion of individuals is typically convoluted, and swarms display neither net polarization nor correlation. The swarms themselves, however, remain nearly stationary and maintain their cohesion even in noisy natural environments. This behaviour stands in contrast with other forms of collective animal behaviour, such as flocking, schooling, or herding, where the motion of individuals is more coordinated, and thus swarms provide a powerful way to study the underpinnings of collective behaviour as distinct from global order. Here, we provide a data set of three-dimensional, time-resolved trajectories, including positions, velocities, and accelerations, of individual insects in laboratory insect swarms. The data can be used to study the collective as a whole as well as the dynamics and behaviour of individuals within the swarm. Design Type(s) observation design • time series design • behavioral data analysis objective Measurement Type(s) group behavior Technology Type(s) digital imaging Factor Type(s) temporal_interval Sample Characteristic(s) Chironomus riparius Machine-accessible metadata file describing the reported data (ISA-Tab format)