What is the reason that many insects live extremely short lives?
In: Biology
A lot of small animals favor fast maturation and reproduction over longevity, since they tend to be low on the food chain and will be eaten soon anyways. Insects are often at the very bottom, so they tend to live shorter lives, which is further influenced by the presence of winter or dry seasons in many locations, so its easier to let the eggs survive these unfavorable conditions rather than try and survive through it.
With that being said, quite a few insects have much longer lived lives in their larval stage. Its not uncommon for many aquatic or burrowing larvae to live for years before having only a brief time on the surface as adults, basically just long enough to reproduce.
There’s not an overall “reason” for most things that evolved.
Many just evolved to continue their species, if having babies and dying quickly works then it can just stay that way.
Very short lifespans tend to be in animals that cycle together in large numbers, like Mayflies. Most reach the critical breeding time together.
Larger animals take longer and more energy to grow so life spans tend to be longer.
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