Meeting Abstract
Black solder fly larvae are edible maggots that are raised by startups all over the world as a source of sustainable protein. A larva competes with its thousands of neighbors to eat twice its body weight per day in decomposing organic waste. We investigate how the collective motion of an aggregation of larvae “pumps” larvae towards a piece of food by considering the feeding behaviors of larvae from individuals to groups of 60,000. We perform time-lapse photography and particle image velocimetry analysis of top and bottom side views of larvae in glass dishes. Around food, larvae from a fountain with their bodies where larvae crawl towards food through the middle of the fountain and fall down the sides once they are done eating. This distributes food between the individuals in the fountain, rather than only allowing a select few larvae to eat.
