-------- Original Message -------- Subject: scorpionida molts Date: Sat, 23 Jul 2011 12:12:06 -0400 From: Matias Gomez Corrales <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Hi everyone, I´m an undergraduate biology student from Colombia (South America) and I´ve just literally started to apply morphometric analysis to my studies. I´m currently trying to establish the number of molts that the /Tityus colombianus /(Sorpionida: Buthidae) goes through before reaching adult size. For this purpose, I´m using the following method: “Theoretical method.-If growth proceeds in steps which follow a geometric progression then the size of a given structure in young and adult arthropods is related as A ^= ypn where A is the dimension of the adult structure, Y is the dimension of the same structure in a young specimen of known instar, P is the progression factor (1.26 in the theoretical method, or the observed value in the mixed method), and n is the number of molts required by the young specimen to reach adult size. Transformed into logarithms the equation becomes: log A ^= log Y + n log P. By rearrangement the working formula to determine the number of molts can be obtained: n ^= (log A- log Y)/log P. Since log 1.26 = 0.1, the equation is simplified to n = 10 (log A- log Y).” (See bibliography at the end). However, my question is whether it is possible to adapt this method to outlines rather than to longitudinal measurements, and if so, how? Your help would be most appreciated. Yours sincerely, Matias Gomez Corrales Biology student Jorge Tadeo Lozano University, Colombia. Oscar F. Francke and W. David Sissom, 1984. COMPARATIVE REVIEW OF THE METHODS USED TO DETERMINE THE NUMBER OF MOLTS TO MATURITY IN SCORPIONS (ARACHNIDA), WITH ANALYSIS THE POST-BIRTH DEVELOPMENT OF VAEYOVIS COAHUILAEWILLIAMS (VAEJOVIDAE)
