Data from: Colony-level differences in the scaling rules governing wood ant compound eye structure

Differential organ growth during development is essential for adults to maintain the correct proportions and achieve their characteristic shape. Organs scale with body size, a process known as allometry that has been studied extensively in a range of organisms. Such scaling rules, typically studied from a limited sample, are assumed to apply to all members of a population and/or species. Here we study scaling in the compound eyes of workers of the wood ant, Formica rufa, from different colonies within a single population. Workers’ eye area increased with body size in all the colonies showing a negative allometry. However, both the slope and intercept of some allometric scaling relationships differed significantly among colonies. Moreover, though mean facet diameter and facet number increased with body size, some colonies primarily increased facet number whereas others increased facet diameter, showing that the cellular level processes underlying organ scaling differed among colonies. Thus, the rules that govern scaling at the organ and cellular levels can differ even within a single population.

发育过程中的差异化器官生长，是成体维持精准躯体比例、形成物种特有形态特征的关键前提。器官大小随躯体尺寸发生缩放，这一过程被称为异速生长（allometry），已在多种生物类群中得到广泛研究。这类缩放规律通常仅基于有限样本开展探究，且默认适用于某一种群或物种的全部个体。本研究以单一地理种群内不同蚁群的木蚁（*Formica rufa*）工蚁复眼为对象，分析其缩放规律：所有蚁群的工蚁复眼面积均随躯体尺寸增大而增加，表现为负异速生长模式。然而部分异速缩放关系的斜率与截距，在不同蚁群间存在显著差异。此外，尽管平均小眼面直径与小眼面数量均随躯体尺寸增大而增加，但部分蚁群主要通过增加小眼面数量实现器官缩放，其余蚁群则优先增大小眼面直径，这表明支撑器官缩放的细胞层面调控过程在不同蚁群间存在差异。由此可见，即便在同一种群内部，调控器官与细胞层面缩放的规律也可能存在差异。