Behavioural biomechanics of insect herbivory - a case study on leaf-cutter ants

Project Information

MechAnt

Grant agreement ID: 851705

DOI

10.3030/851705

EC signature date 30 September 2019

Start date 1 January 2020

End date 31 December 2026

Funded under

• EXCELLENT SCIENCE - European Research Council (ERC)

Total cost

€ 1 998 764,00

EU contribution

€ 1 998 764,00

Coordinated by

IMPERIAL COLLEGE OF SCIENCE TECHNOLOGY AND MEDICINE
United Kingdom

CORDIS provides links to public deliverables and publications of HORIZON projects.

Links to deliverables and publications from FP7 projects, as well as links to some specific result types such as dataset and software, are dynamically retrieved from OpenAIRE .

Publications

Peer reviewed articles (14)

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

Author(s): Frederik Püffel; Anaya Pouget; Xinyue Liu; Marcus Zuber; Thomas van de Kamp; Flavio Roces; David Labonte
Published in: Journal of the Royal Society Interface, Issue 18, 2021, Page(s) 20210424, ISSN 1742-5662
Publisher: Royal Society
DOI: 10.1098/rsif.2021.0424

Dynamics similarity and the peculiar allometry of maximum running speed

Author(s): David Labonte and Peter Bishop and Taylor Dick and Christopher J Clemente
Published in: Nature Communications, Issue 15:2181, 2024, ISSN 2041-1723
Publisher: Nature Publishing Group
DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-46269-w

replicAnt: a pipeline for generating annotated images of animals in complex environments using Unreal Engine

Author(s): Fabian Plum; René Bulla; Hendrik K. Beck; Natalie Imirzian; David Labonte
Published in: Nature Communications, Issue Vol 14, Iss 1, 2024, Page(s) 1-19, ISSN 2041-1723
Publisher: Nature Publishing Group
DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-42898-9

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

Author(s): Frederik Püffel; Richard Johnston; David Labonte
Published in: Royal Society Open Science, Issue 10:221066, 2023, ISSN 2054-5703
Publisher: Royal Society
DOI: 10.1101/2022.08.17.504316

Behavioural biomechanics: leaf-cutter ant cutting behaviour depends on leaf edge geometry

Author(s): Frederik Püffel, Victor Kang, Mia Yap, Mohammad Shojaeifard, Mattia Bacca, David Labonte
Published in: Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, Issue 292, 2025, ISSN 1471-2954
Publisher: The Royal Society
DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2024.2926

Iron-coated Komodo dragon teeth and the complex dental enamel of carnivorous reptiles

Author(s): Aaron R. H. LeBlanc, Alexander P. Morrell, Slobodan Sirovica, Maisoon Al-Jawad, David Labonte, Domenic C. D’Amore, Christofer Clemente, Siyang Wang, Finn Giuliani, Catriona M. McGilvery, Michael Pittman, Thomas G. Kaye, Colin Stevenson, Joe Capon, Benjamin Tapley, Simon Spiro, Owen Addison
Published in: Nature Ecology & Evolution, Issue 8, 2024, Page(s) 1711-1722, ISSN 2397-334X
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
DOI: 10.1038/s41559-024-02477-7

Three-dimensional kinematics of leaf-cutter ant mandibles: not all dicondylic joints are simple hinges

Author(s): Victor Kang; Frederik Püffel; David Labonte
Published in: Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, Issue 378:20220546, 2023, ISSN 1471-2970
Publisher: Royal Society
DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2022.0546

scAnt —an open-source platform for the creation of 3D models of arthropods (and other small objects)

Author(s): Fabian Plum, David Labonte
Published in: PeerJ, Issue 9, 2021, Page(s) e11155, ISSN 2167-8359
Publisher: PeerJ
DOI: 10.7717/peerj.11155

Biomechanical components of the plant–insect herbivore arms race: a model test in leaf-cutter ants

Author(s): Olivia K. Walthaus, Dilanka I. Deegala, Raphael Delattre, David Labonte
Published in: Journal of The Royal Society Interface, Issue 22, 2025, ISSN 1742-5662
Publisher: The Royal Society
DOI: 10.1098/rsif.2025.0091

Biomechanics of cutting: sharpness, wear sensitivity, and the scaling of cutting forces in leaf-cutter ant mandibles

Author(s): Frederik Püffel; O. K. Walthaus; Victor Kang; David Labonte
Published in: Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, Issue 378:20220547, 2023, ISSN 1471-2970
Publisher: Royal Society
DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2022.0547

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

Author(s): Frederik Püffel; Flavio Roces; David Labonte
Published in: J Exp Biol, Issue 226:jeb245140, 2023, ISSN 1477-9145
Publisher: The Company of Biologists
DOI: 10.1101/2022.09.28.509980

OmniTrax: A deep learning-driven multi-animal trackingand pose-estimation add-on for Blender

Author(s): Fabian Plum
Published in: Journal of Open Source Software, Issue 9, 2024, Page(s) 5549, ISSN 2475-9066
Publisher: The Open Journal
DOI: 10.21105/joss.05549

Developmental biomechanics and age polyethism in leaf-cutter ants

Author(s): Frederik Püffel; Lara Meyer; Natalie Imirzian; Flavio Roces; Richard Johnston; David Labonte
Published in: Proc R Soc B, Issue Volume 290 |Issue 2000, 2023, ISSN 1471-2954
Publisher: Royal Society
DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2023.0355

Large deformation diffeomorphic mapping of 3D shape variation reveals two distinct mandible and head capsule morphs in Atta vollenweideri leaf-cutter worker ants

Author(s): Natalie Imirzian, Frederik Püffel, Flavio Roces, David Labonte
Published in: Ecology and Evolution, Issue 14:e11236, 2024, ISSN 2045-7758
Publisher: John Wiley and Sons Ltd
DOI: 10.1002/ece3.11236