Are scorpions, like insects, bound by their respiration to a maximum size?

245 views

A question for the entomologists among you. Insects breathe through tracheas and therefore cannot grow larger than 17 centimeters at our current oxygen concentration (says the first article I found on Google).
So my question is whether scorpions are bound in the same or a similar way. Google could not really help me in this regard.

In: 6

3 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

Scorpions breathe through [book lungs](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book_lung), so the mechanism is different, but they still don’t breathe actively, so that limits the gas exchange much like in insects.

Some other arthropods, like crabs, breathe through [branchiostegal lungs](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Branchiostegal_lung), so they can get quite large – the [coconut crab](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coconut_crab) can grow up to 40 cm body length and 1 m leg span.

You are viewing 1 out of 3 answers, click here to view all answers.