The Insects breathe Through the windpipe . This takes the oxygen to the animal and expels the Carbon dioxide Of your metabolism.
Insects, like people, require oxygen to live and release carbon dioxide, but it can not be said that insects breathe as humans understand it.
Insects lack lungs or gills to receive oxygen from air or water. Nor do they carry oxygen through their circulatory systems. You may also want to know more about the Tracheal breathing: characteristics and examples of animals.
Breathing in insects: the tracheal system
The insects absorb the air through small holes that cover the lower part of their bodies called spiracles, or respiratory pores. These open when the insect expands the muscles of your abdomen and close when the insect contracts your abdominal muscles.
When the air enters the spiracles, it moves through the tracheal system, formed by an extensive network of very fine tubes that run through the body of the insect.
These tracheas, when branching, are becoming thinner, entering into all tissues, reaching the cells. It is similar to what happens in humans regarding blood capillaries.
Insects breathe by diffusion
The exchange of gases, or what we understand as respiration, is mainly done by diffusion through the cell walls, bringing oxygen directly to the different tissues of the body.
The air that reaches the trachea, through diffusion, is distributed throughout the tissues reaching the cells, supplying the necessary oxygen while collecting excess carbon dioxide, which is expelled through the spiracles.
This explains the movement of gases. In addition, to some extent, insects are able to control their breathing. The insect opens and closes the spiracles using muscle contractions.
An insect that lives in a dry and desert environment will keep the spiracle valves closed to prevent loss of moisture.
Insects can also pump muscles through their bodies to force air through the tracheal tubes, thus speeding up oxygen delivery.
In heat or under stress, insects can even release the air by alternately opening different spiracles and using the muscles to expand or contract their bodies.
The respiratory system of an insect is very efficient for small organisms. As the size of the body increases, efficiency decreases. When the diameter of the body exceeds 3 centimeters, respiratory needs can not be satisfied.
Therefore, it is the respiratory system of insects which restricts their body size. It should be noted that no transport system, such as blood, is involved in the movement of oxygen or carbon dioxide around the body.
How do aquatic insects breathe?
While oxygen is abundant in the air (O2 levels in air are 200,000 parts per million), it is considerably less accessible in water (reaching only 15 ppm). Despite this respiratory challenge, many insects live in the water during some stages of their life cycle.
Most insects can survive underwater for long periods by closing their spiracles and slowing their metabolism, but aquatic insects have made some special adaptations to survive underwater.
Aquatic insects, in order to increase their oxygen uptake in water while submerged, employ structures that effectively increase the surface area available for gas exchange.
Many insects that inhabit water have Gills Tracheal structures, tiny tracheal structures that allow them to take in more oxygen from the water than they could otherwise, in a similar way as fish do.
These gills are often found in the abdomen, but in some insects they are found in strange and unexpected places. Some plecoptera, for example, have anal gills that resemble a group of filaments that extend from their rear ends. Or, like dragonfly larvae, they have gills inside their rectums.
Some aquatic invertebrates use respiratory pigments to draw oxygen from water. Larvae of non-choking mosquitoes (from the chironomid family), among a few insect groups, have hemoglobins, as do vertebrates.
Chironomid larvae, due to hemoglobin, have a bright red color, hence their name Blood worms Or red worms.
These blood worms can develop even in water with exceptionally low oxygen levels. They wave their bodies in the muddy bottom of lakes and ponds saturating their hemoglobins with oxygen.
When they stop moving, hemoglobins release oxygen, allowing them to breathe even in the most polluted aquatic environments.
However, some insects that inhabit aquatic environments, get their oxygen from the air, using an open trachea system similar to terrestrial insects. Some of these aquatic insects, such as rat-tailed worms, maintain a connection with surface air through a structure similar to that of a dive tube.
Some species of mosquito larvae take advantage of the oxygen supplies that some aquatic plants store underwater called vacuoles.
Oxygen is a waste product from your breathing cycle, but it helps them float. Mosquito larvae use their respiratory tubes to pierce vacuoles and breathe in oxygen.
Some beetles and aquatic insects are able to dive by carrying a temporary air bubble with them, much like a diver carrying an air tank.
Others, like the beetle Elmidae , Of the Coleoptera class, maintain a permanent film of air around the bodies.
These aquatic insects are protected by a network of tiny bristles (hairs) that repel water, providing them with a constant air space from which to extract oxygen. This structure, called plastron, allows them to be permanently submerged.
References
- Wigglesworth, V."Insect". In: Encyclopædia Britannica (April, 2015) Encyclopædia Britannica, inc. Retrieved on: May 8, 2017 from britannica.com.
- Hadley, D."How Do Insects Breathe?"(April, 2017) at: ThoughtCo. Animals & Nature. Retrieved on: May 8, 2017 from thoughtco.com.
- Steinau, R."How Do Insects Breathe"in: Ask the Exterminator. Retrieved on May 8, 2017 from asktheexterminator.com.
- Jordán Montanes, F."The universe of insects"Ed. Mundi-Prensa Libros (2013, Spain).
- De la Cruz Lozano, J."Entomology, morphology and physiology of insects"National University of Colombia (2005). Recovered on May 8, 2017 from bdigital.unal.edu.co.
- Shepard & Aguilar. "Preliminary study of the families of aquatic beetles known dryopidae, elmidae, lutrochidae and psephenidae of Paraguay". (June, 2010). Museum of Entomology. Berkeley University of California. Retrieved on May 8, 2017 from essig.berkeley.edu.
- Crone, T."How Insects Breathe"(April, 2011) in: Science Modalities. Retrieved on May 8, 2017 from sciencemodalities.wordpress.com.
- L. Miller. "The Regulation of Breathing in Insects"in: Advances in Insect Physiology
Volume 3. in Science Direct Retrieved on 8 May 2017 from sciencedirect.com.