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Ongoing projects
Ongoing projects
Past projects
Past projects
Collaborations
Collaborations
2022-now
Modelling bee movements and their consequences for pollination
with Mathieu Lihoreau & Louise Riotte Lambert
2020-2021
Modelling the effects of hippocampal replays on robot navigation
with Mehdi Khamassi
2026
Impact of floral resource heterogeneity on movement patterns of honey bees
with Renzhuang Xie
2025
Effect of spatial scale on navigation performance in the Traveling Salesman Problem
with Charlotte Doussot
2023
Comparative study of route following behaviour in bumble bees and honey bees
with Alexis Buatois
Ongoing projects
Ongoing projects
Modelling bee movements and their consequences for pollination
Modelling bee movements and their consequences for pollination
Bee movements (different colors) on flower patches (back dots) in my IBM.
This project started in 2022 as a Master's internship at CRCA-CBI (Toulouse, France), and followed with my PhD and first post-doc. It is supervised by Mathieu Lihoreau and Louise Riotte-Lambert.
The goal of this project is to understand how bees' cognitive capacities impact their foraging movements and plant pollination.
I first developed an Individual-Based Model (IBM) of bee movements that enables me to understand how their movements are impacted by their cognition and their environment.
I tested some of the model's predictions experimentally, with bumble bees (Bombus terrestris).
We then improved the model to include pollen transfers between plants.
We could then directly examine the link between pollinator movements and pollination (mating distance, number of mates, spatial structure of pollen flows, etc). For example, we found that bees' learning capacities improve pollination quality.
I am currently working on evaluating the impact of bee cognition on pollen dispersal kernels.
Behavioural experiments with a bumble bee colony (on the left), using an automated nectar distribution system (on the right).
Main collaborators
Main collaborators
Funding: ERC BEE-MOVE (Mathieu Lihoreau), CNRS
Supervisors: Mathieu Lihoreau (CRCA-CBI, Toulouse, France) & Louise Riotte-Lambert (CEFE, Montpellier, France)
Collaborators: Fabien Laroche (code and advice on pollen dispersal kernels), Blandine Mahot-Castaing & Dany Tebbani (experiments), Loïc Goulefert (automated experimental devices), Thomas Besognet (developing pollen transfers module)
Selected publications
Selected publications
Mailly, J., Besognet, T., Lihoreau, M., Riotte-Lambert, L. (2025). The Influence of Bee Movements on Patterns of Pollen Transfer between Plants: An Exploratory Model. Integrative and Comparative Biology. https://doi.org/10.1093/icb/icaf051
Mailly, J., Riotte-Lambert, L., Lihoreau, M. (2026). Why we need more mechanisms in pollination models. Current Opinion in Insect Science. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cois.2026.101562
Past projects
Past projects
Modelling the effects of hippocampal replays on robot navigation
Modelling the effects of hippocampal replays on robot navigation
A Turtlebot 3 Burger robot was used in this task through a 3D simulator.
Cognitive map of the robot (different locations in red), and position of the reward (blue) within the arena (black circle).
This project spanned between 2020 and 2021, during a Master's internship at ISIR with Mehdi Khamassi.
The goal of this project was to to study the impact of hippocampal replays in a simulated robot navigation task.
The simulated robot could move between different locations in a circular arena and had to learn the position of a reward using reinforcement learning.
When resting, the robot could replay "in its head" the sequence of events to consolidate learning without moving.
I implemented, tested and compared different strategies for these replays.
Main collaborators
Main collaborators
Supervisor: Mehdi Khamassi (ISIR, Paris, France)
Collaborator: Elisa Massi (guidance with the robot system, code, advice)
Selected publication
Selected publication
Massi E., Barthélemy J., Mailly J., Dromnelle R., Canitrot J., Poniatowski E., Girard B. and Khamassi M. (2022) Model-Based and Model-Free Replay Mechanisms for Reinforcement Learning in Neurorobotics. Frontiers in Neurorobotics. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnbot.2022.864380
Collaborations
Collaborations
Impact of floral resource heterogeneity on movement patterns of honey bees
Impact of floral resource heterogeneity on movement patterns of honey bees
I collaborate with Renzhuang Xie on his PhD project since 2026. Renzhuang is supervised by Mathieu Lihoreau (CRCA-CBI, Toulouse France).
Renzhuang studies the impact of floral resource heterogeneity on honey bee movements. My role is to provide technical advice on adapting and using my Individual-Based Model for his research questions.
Effect of spatial scale on navigation performance in the Traveling Salesman Problem
Effect of spatial scale on navigation performance in the Traveling Salesman Problem
In 2025, I collaborated with Charlotte Doussot (then post-doc at CRCA-CBI, Toulouse), on a project that aimed at studying human navigational performances in a video-game Traveling Salesman Problem task.
I help re-designing the experiment and advertise the study to participants.
This study showed a complex effect of spatial scale on navigation performance.
Preprint: Doussot C., Muflih S., Mailly J., Müller M. M., Boeddeker N., Lihoreau M. (2025) Human performance in the Traveling Salesman Problem is influenced by spatial scale. bioRxiv. https://doi.org/10.1101/2025.10.27.684641
Comparative study of route following behaviour in bumble bees and honey bees
Comparative study of route following behaviour in bumble bees and honey bees
In 2023, I helped Alexis Buatois (CRCA-CBI, Toulouse, France) with data analyses to compare route development and following of bumble bees and honey bees.
When many feeding sites are available, bumble bees seem more efficient at forming a route between these sites than honey bees, and the routes were also more optimal.
Publication: Buatois A., Mailly J., Dubois T. , Lihoreau M. (2024) A comparative analysis of foraging route development by bumblebees and honey bees. Behavioral Ecolology and Sociobioly. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-023-03422-7
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