The development and evolution of exaggerated morphologies in insects.

@article{Emlen2000TheDA,
  title={The development and evolution of exaggerated morphologies in insects.},
  author={Douglas J. Emlen and H. Frederik Nijhout},
  journal={Annual review of entomology},
  year={2000},
  volume={45},
  pages={
          661-708
        }
}
We discuss a framework for studying the evolution of morphology in insects, based on the concepts of "phenotypic plasticity" and "reaction norms." We illustrate this approach with the evolution of some of the most extreme morphologies in insects: exaggerated, sexually selected male ornaments and weapons, and elaborate social insect soldier castes. Most of these traits scale with body size, and these scaling relationships are often nonlinear. We argue that scaling relationships are best viewed… 
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