How can a bug like a praying mantis eat another bug it’s own size and not appear to be twice as big?
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Well, you could eat a bag of puffy marshmallows in one sitting, and then not appear to have gained in size by that bag.
Same with popcorn, etc…
So it’s all about compressing and compacting mass, down to a smaller volume, using jaws and muscles.
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A second component about the process–this comment of mine sounds so gross!–squeezing out fluids too, which further helps the rest of the matter get more compacted.
Similarly, you might have noticed how sometimes when you cook meat, it’s often noticeably smaller in size, than when you started, simply due to the heat driving out the fluids.
So fluids can get driven out in various ways, including when you squeeze and compact something, and that then allows for yet more compacting, which then drives out yet more fluids, etc…
Doubling the volume of a cylinder doesn’t make it twice as thick, so they don’t swell as much as you may think when full.
Also they’re pretty sloppy eaters – a lot of their prey is chitinous exoskeleton that they discard and liquid bug goo. Wings, legs, they’ll toss all that stuff since there’s not much nutrition to be had there.
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