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Open AccessJournal ArticleDOI

Morphological determinants of bite force capacity in insects: a biomechanical analysis of polymorphic leaf-cutter ants.

TLDR
The extraordinary success of social insects is partially based on division of labour, i.e. individuals exclusively or preferentially perform specific tasks as discussed by the authors, and task preference may correlate with morph morphology.
Abstract
The extraordinary success of social insects is partially based on division of labour, i.e. individuals exclusively or preferentially perform specific tasks. Task preference may correlate with morph...

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Journal ArticleDOI

A biomechanical model for the relation between bite force and mandibular opening angle in arthropods

TL;DR: In this article , a biomechanical model that characterizes the relationship between bite force and mandibular opening angle was derived from first principles and validated by comparing its geometric predictions with morphological measurements on the muscoloskeletal bite apparatus of Atta cephalotes leaf-cutter ants.
Posted ContentDOI

Strong positive allometry of bite force in leaf-cutter ants increases the range of cuttable plant tissues

TL;DR: It is demonstrated that bite forces in leaf-cutter ants need to be exceptionally large compared to body mass to enable them to cut leaves; and that the positive allometry enables colonies to forage on a wider range of plant species without the need for extreme investment into larger workers.
Posted ContentDOI

A biomechanical model for the relation between bite force and mandibular opening angle in arthropods

TL;DR: A comprehensive biomechanical model is derived that characterises the relationship between bite force and mandibular opening angle from first principles and suggests a hierarchy of model simplifications and assess the performance of ‘minimum’ models which predict bite force from a reduced set of easily accessible parameters.
Journal ArticleDOI

The ant abdomen: The skeletomuscular and soft tissue anatomy of Amblyopone australis workers (Hymenoptera: Formicidae)

TL;DR: The abdominal anatomy of Amblyopone australis Erichson is described, using a multimodal approach combining manual dissection, histology, and microcomputed tomography, to provide a first approximation of the complete abdominal skeletomuscular groundplan in Formicidae.
Journal ArticleDOI

The First Reconstruction of the Head Anatomy of a Cretaceous Insect, †Gerontoformica gracilis (Hymenoptera: Formicidae), and the Early Evolution of Ants

TL;DR: The results support the notion of †Gerontoformica as ‘generalized’ above-ground predator missing crucial novelties of crown ants which may have helped the latter survive the end-Cretaceous extinction.
References
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Journal Article

R: A language and environment for statistical computing.

R Core Team
- 01 Jan 2014 - 
TL;DR: Copyright (©) 1999–2012 R Foundation for Statistical Computing; permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of this manual provided the copyright notice and permission notice are preserved on all copies.
Journal ArticleDOI

Fiji: an open-source platform for biological-image analysis

TL;DR: Fiji is a distribution of the popular open-source software ImageJ focused on biological-image analysis that facilitates the transformation of new algorithms into ImageJ plugins that can be shared with end users through an integrated update system.
Journal ArticleDOI

User-guided 3D active contour segmentation of anatomical structures: Significantly improved efficiency and reliability

TL;DR: The methods and software engineering philosophy behind this new tool, ITK-SNAP, are described and the results of validation experiments performed in the context of an ongoing child autism neuroimaging study are provided, finding that SNAP is a highly reliable and efficient alternative to manual tracing.
Book

Caste and ecology in the social insects

TL;DR: Oster and Wilson as discussed by the authors provided the first fully developed theory of caste evolution among the social insects and studied the effects of natural selection in generally increasing the insects' ergonomic efficiency.
Book

Python 3 Reference Manual

TL;DR: This book is part of a brand new six-part series of Python documentation books, and for each copy sold $1 will be donated to the Python Software Foundation by the publisher.
Related Papers (5)
Trending Questions (1)
Are morphological changes between individuals of similar size imperceptible to the naked eye in leaf-cutter ants?

The answer to the query is not mentioned in the paper. The provided paper is about the morphological determinants of bite force capacity in polymorphic leaf-cutter ants.