Swarm behaviour, or
swarming, is a
collective behaviour exhibited by entities, particularly animals, of similar size which aggregate together, perhaps milling about the same spot or perhaps moving
en masse or
migrating in some direction. It is highly interdisciplinary topic. As a term,
swarming is applied particularly to insects, but can also be applied to any other entity or animal that exhibits swarm behaviour. The term
flocking is usually used to refer specifically to swarm behaviour in birds,
herding to refer to swarm behaviour in quadrupeds,
shoaling or schooling to refer to swarm behaviour in fish.
Phytoplankton also gather in huge swarms called
blooms, although these organisms are
algae and are not self-propelled the way animals are. By extension, the term swarm is applied also to inanimate entities which exhibit parallel behaviours, as in a
robot swarm, an
earthquake swarm, or a swarm of stars.