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1. The nutrient supply network model of the metabolic theory of ecology predicts that metabolic rate scales as at all hierarchical levels. 2. An alternative, cell size, model suggests that the scaling of metabolic rate is a by-product of the way in which body size changes, by cell size or number, or some combination thereof. It predicts a scaling exponent of at the widest interspecific level, but values of for lower taxonomic groups or within species. 3. Here these predictions are tested in insects using 391 species for the interspecific analysis, and the size-polymorphic workers of eight ant species at the intraspecific level. In the latter, the contribution of ommatidium size and number to variation in body length, which is closely related to eye size, is used to assess the relative contributions of changes in cell size and number to variation in body size. 4. Before controlling for phylogeny, metabolic rate scaled interspecifically as …