Q: why are insects so succesfull?

[har0bed1813]

[color=darkred] Why are insects so succesfull on this earth...? [color]

[Chris4]

Good question. How many ants are on earth? More than humans? They are very successful.

[mith]

Successful as in they are in every habitat? What is the definition of success?

Because I can tell you a bug would be very unsucessful if it picked a fight with a flyswatter.

[Poison]

successful about what?

[Chris4]

Well, There are millions of little flies in the air.
Look at ants. Amazing network (nest thing). Working together, gathering food etc.
Successful as in there are billions of insects and some are very organised, like ants.

[mith]

If we wanted to, we could have sex willy-nilly and have as much offspring as they do

[MrMistery]

Insects are organisms that lay an immense quantity of eggs. Since they are so small, the environment can support a whole lot of them. 75% of the animal kingdom is insects. But, as mithril said, if we wanted we could have so many offspring but then we would suck the earth dry of resources(faster)

[2810712]

Insects are successful in the sense that they have survived from looooong times , this is another meaning of successful relating it to evolution.

And best of luck mithril. And offcourse Andrew, if he wants to have... [ Have himself wished by me , don't misunderstand dirty minds ]

hruusheekeish

[har0bed1813]

true.. another thing: would it be likely/efficient for a certain *bug* to grow bigger, because that's one of the things that happened to humans during the course of evolution....

[victor]

I don't think that bug can grow bigger like human do because I don't think that bugs have Somatothropine hormone that will stimulate the length of the skeleton. Beside, as we see that bugs are eksoskeleton organisms that don't have bone inside their body (endoskeleton). Inside their body, there are only organs, simple nerve systems etc which are really different from us human. And another thing, bugs are classified in Invertebrates-arthropode which is still considered to low degree organisms.
Maybe bugs will be angry if they read this post but...that's what I can say...but actually bugs are good in cooperating each other because of their amazing nose that can smell pheromones from a far away distances.

[mith]

Right, a giant exoskeleton would be too heavy.

[canalon]

I remember having to study that, long ago when I was starting biology at university. There are 2 problems:

Diffusion of oxygen through the trachea is becoming more and more problematic as size increase. so the respiratory system of insects is not adapted to massive body size, to gain length, you have to stay very thin...

The exoskeleton thickness is increasing exponentially as the size is increasing, and it would become to heavy/bulky long before the insect reach a really big size.

Patrick