Peter Rühr
PhD student
I am studying the evolution and biomechanics of insect heads, with a focus on non-holometabolous biting chewing taxa (e.g. dragonflies, stoneflies, stick insects & praying mantises). My particular interest lies in the influence of ecological factors on the head shape in these groups, including food preference, microhabitat, and flight capacity. Another part of my work is the exploration of how these factors are related to the ability of the different head capsule shapes to resist strains during biting. To tackle these questions, I am using a combination of computed tomography, 3D geometric morphometrics, biteforce measurements, multibody simulations, finite element analyses, and multivariate statistical methods.
