this post was submitted on 16 Apr 2025

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998

Bees don't have lungs. (mander.xyz)

submitted 1 month ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

189 comments fedilink hide all child comments

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/jan/31/they-survived-fire-and-lead-poisoning-so-what-happened-next-to-notre-dames-bees-aoe

(page 3) 50 comments

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago

insects are also all upside-down

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 month ago

They breathe their own farts. Well.

[–] [email protected] 66 points 1 month ago (3 children)

And, for the most part, humans' lungs don't have bees!

I somehow forgot about bees not having lungs. I knew some other small things didn't.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 month ago (1 children)

What's that? Human lungs don't have bees?!

A large influx of bees ought to put a stop to that!

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 month ago (3 children)

Most invertebrates have no internal air sac breathing organ. Arachnids kinda do, and I'm seeing something about semi-aquatic snails, but direct diffusion is pretty efficient at that scale.

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Speak for yourself

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I find that hard to beelieve

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[–] [email protected] 26 points 1 month ago (1 children)

It's what limits their size. If insects had lungs, they could get larger. 300 million years ago, when the oxygen content in the atmosphere was temporarily higher, there were huge dragonflies with 75 cm wingspan (2.5 ft).

[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 month ago

In the original Jurassic Park novel by Michael Crichton, one of the animals they've cloned are these giant dragonflies. Its only one line in the book (Tim, one if the kids, sees one fly by and recalls reading about them) but it caught my attention as just straight impossible. I remember thinking, "Unless you're somehow controlling the oxygen level of the air around this entire island, there's no way that bug can't breathe."

[–] [email protected] 32 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Huh, the Greek hero Spiracles saved the bees

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago

Obviously, the Greek hero Spiracles also rhymes with the bees

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 month ago

TIL

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