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Emmideer
Oct 20, 2011

Lovely night, no?
Grimey Drawer

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Emmideer
Oct 20, 2011

Lovely night, no?
Grimey Drawer

Squalid posted:

insects and a lot of other terrestrial invertebrates don't breath through their mouths. Instead insects breath through a series of little holes on the sides of their bodies called spiracles. This changes respiration in some interesting ways -- for example unlike tetrapods who have to actively pump air into and out of their lungs they can instead rely on passive gas exchange meaning they don't have to use any muscles at all during respiration. Take a look at a mouse or even yourself in a mirror sometime -- your chest is almost constantly moving. By contrast you could watch a spider waiting for prey for hours and it might not even twitch. Usually these animals don't have to actively breath even when exerting themselves. Instead they rely on the flexing of their limbs as they move to pump air in and out of their bodies.

I'm not an expert in spider metabolism or anything but as I recall this has some consequences for how they experience "exhaustion." If you've ever played with a web spinner on the ground you might notice they tend to move in rapid short burst. They go really fast, and then stop. This pattern is I think related to their respiration and circulation, which is highly efficient for very short periods, but tends to tap out quickly and require some time to recharge. Spiders are also weird in that as I recall some of them have lung like structures. Rollypollies aka pillbugs, which are crustaceans, have a completely different system for breathing which is more like tetrapods than insects.

do you have any information on clown respiratory systems?

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