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Selective breeding with dogs and cats has produced myriad shapes, sizes, colours etc. Genetic engineering aside, I was wondering if it would be possible to create larger and larger insects by picking out the biggest ones at each generation.
Humongous dragonflies existed in prehistoric times, so
supporting the exoskeleton appears not to be a problem, at least up to a certain size.
I think they would make lovely pets.
Hasbro's BIO Bugs
http://media.hasbro...ease.cfm?release=62
or convince Hasbro to keep advancing these until one can fly [krelnik]
A message from a thread entitled: "Re: Why there no big insect? Help!"
news://News.CIS.DFN...@corp.supernews.com
it's in 'sci.bio.entomology.misc'. [krelnik, Oct 04 2004, last modified Oct 21 2004]
The New Zealand Weta
http://weta.boarsnest.net/
Currently the world's largest insect. [DrBob, Oct 04 2004, last modified Oct 21 2004]
Macropanesthia rhinoceros
http://www.qmuseum....ages/cockroach2.jpg
[UnaBubba, Oct 04 2004]
[link]
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eventually they could be trained and used for transportation. the breeding program should start in Australia, the bugs already have a head start. |
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a 12 ft spider would make a great all terrain vehicle, and carry several passengers with ease. actually, it would be a living tow truck too. |
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"Just pop in your patent HB time machine." |
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Cool. Made of shiny leather! |
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Want bigger insects? Come to New York. |
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I thought insects had a mass-to-surface area limit beyond which they wouldn't be able to intake enough oxygen. |
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[bookworm] - you've nailed it. I just found out that oxygen levels were much much higher at the times of the big dragonflies. Rich enough to cause fire to rip through forests all the time, even when it was raining really heavily - wow! |
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And there were scorpions a metre long. Oh well, it was a nice thought. |
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Starship Troopers acommin ! |
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Fortunately Macropanesthia rhinoceros can't fly. They are pretty big, though. |
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Ask [bliss] about the spiders we have here. |
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I thought that insects couldn't function beyond a certain size due to sturctural weaknesses of their exoskeleton. (Which is why everything 'big' these days has an endoskeleton?) |
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That was the received wisdom when I were a lad. |
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Then how did these prehistoric behemuths do it? Gravity hasn't changed, though the extreme prehistoric humidity may have provided a bit of support. As [bookworm]'s already pointed out, the limiting factor is oxygen, not structural. |
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I agree. I'm merely confirming for [Jinbish] that the alternative explanation, however incorrect, is somewhat widespread. |
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I still say that the dinosaur killing meteor, hit the earth at a tangent to its spin and slowed it down just enough so that the big critters couldn't stay up anymore. The gravity did change. |
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The only big things we have here are squids, ohhh and we
have the giant east coast earthworm too I think that
grows damn big, I remember finding one on a school camp
as long as my arm. |
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Bugs have blood don't they? Have them where a lung machien hooked up to a O2 tank. Or just have them as museum exibits. |
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