Glandular innovations for a tunnelling life: Silk and associated leg glands in Melissotarsus and Rhopalomastix queen and worker ants

As in other Hymenoptera, adult ants cannot secrete silk, unlike the larvae that spin a cocoon prior to metamorphosis. Fisher and Robertson (1999) first showed the existence of a silk gland in the head of adult Melissotarsus beccarii workers, and we confirm this with detailed histology and ultrastruc...

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