Insect Biomechanics Workgroup
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Karin Moll PhD student Department of Zoology |
Research
Leaf-cutting ants harvest large amounts of plant material and their high foraging efficiency has enabled them to become the most important herbivores of the New World Tropics and Subtropics. My research aims to identify proximate, biomechanical factors and their associated costs in the foraging process of grass-cutting ants (Atta vollenweideri). The importance of biomechanical problems is particularly obvious in these ants, because individual workers cut and carry grass blades that are many times longer and heavier than the ants themselves. I analyze the two main components of the foraging process, the cutting and the transport of grass blades, by combining biomechanical, physiological and comparative approaches.
Publications
- Moll, K., Roces, F. and Federle, W. (2013): How Load-Carrying Ants Avoid Falling Over: Mechanical Stability during Foraging in Atta vollenweideri Grass-Cutting Ants. PLoS ONE 8(1): e52816
- Moll, K., Federle, W. and Roces, F. (2012). The energetics of running stability: costs of transport in grass-cutting ants depend on fragment shape. Journal of Experimental Biology, 215: 261-268
- Moll, K., Roces, F. and Federle, W. (2010). Foraging grass-cutting ants (Atta vollenweideri) maintain stability by balancing their loads with controlled head movements. Journal of Comparative Physiology A 196(7): 471-480
Abstracts
- Moll, K., Federle, W. and Roces, F. (2011). Metabolic cost of transport in grass-cutting ants depends on load shape. Annual Meeting & Exhibition Final Programme and Abstracts. Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology, Jan 3-7, Salt Lake City, UT, USA.
- Moll, K., Roces, F. and Federle, W. (2010) The challenge of large loads - How grass-cutting ants maintain stability. Annual Main Meeting Programme. Society for Experimental Biology, 30th June – 3rd July, Prague, Czech Republic.
- Moll, K. and Federle, W. (2010). Biomechanical problems of load transport: How grass-cutting ants avoid falling over. Society of Integrative and Comparative Biology Annual Meeting & Exhibition Final Program and Abstracts. Jan 3-7 Seattle, WA.
- Moll, K. and Federle W. (2009) Balancing acrobats: Grass-carrying ants avoid falling over by controlled head movements. Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology - Part A: Molecular & Integrative Physiology 153(2), S129-S130.
Selected media
- Guest at the Royal Institution Christmas Lectures 2010, BBC4 28.12.2010
- Daily Planet, Discovery Channel Canada 05.10.2010
- Ant's head balancing act revealed by video, BBC Earth News 18.06.2010
- How ants maintain stability while carrying heavy loads, Thaindian News 21.06.2010
- Mensch gegen Tier - Wer ist stärker, Sat1 Planetopia 06.06.2010
Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge
Downing Street, Cambridge CB2 3EJ, United Kingdom
