Eli5:How do bugs breathe

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Eli5:How do bugs breathe

In: Biology

Anonymous 0 Comments

So, you know how diffusion works, right? When gases move from a location of high concentration to low concentration? So, bugs have small tubes in their bodies that allow oxygen and CO2 to diffuse directly into/out of their bodies, it’s air sorta version of how gills work, in that they use diffusion as well. So they don’t actually have to actively breathe. It’s also what limits their body size. The larger they are, the longer the tubes have to be, which lessens the effectiveness of the tubes. So, you don’t have to worry about giant millipedes the size of busses like hundreds of millions of years ago.