Curvilinear allometry, energetics and foraging ecology: a comparison of leaf-cutting ants and army ants

Allometric scaling in ants with polymorphic castes often remains curvilinear after logarithmic transformation. A technique for comparing non-linear scaling is developed and used to compare caste polymorphism in the leaf-cutting ant Atta colombica Guerin and the army ant Eciton hamatum (Fab.). Of the five morphological characters compared, the scaling of leg length to the cube root of body mass (M-1/3) differed the most: relative leg length increased with M-1/3 in E. hamatum and decreased with M-1/3 in A. colombica. This difference reflected species differences in the energetics and foraging behaviour.