Re: insects - not! (OT)

[Dann Pigdon <dannj@alphalink.com.au>]

Phil Bigelow wrote:
> 
> The largest living "land" invertebrate is the Robber Crab.  Do a Google
> on it.
> It spends a lot of its time hunting on land.  Getting enough oxygen isn't
> the limiting factor for big land arthropods.  Their problem is keeping
> their gills moist.

Not all crabs are dependant on water to breath. There's a species of
land crab that lives in the middle of the Australian desert. It only
encounters water on the rare occasions when it rains, then it quickly
breeds and lays eggs. It's dry the rest of the year (both the crab AND
the desert, that is).

Maitland, P. & D. Maitland, 1986. The Australian Desert Crab. A
Side-walk to the conventional crustacean. Aust. Nat. Hist., 21(11):
496-498.

pheret wrote:

> i believe cockroaches have a similar breathing mechanism?  i 
> know i read an article about their breathing which is not the same as 
> other insects

Cockroaches are amazing insects. They invented wing assisted running
long before any archosaur attempted it. When they have to go really fast
(and for their size they're the fastest runner known in the insect
world), they actually run bipedally with their body shape acting as an
aerofoil to keep the front part of their body up.

-- 
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Dann Pigdon
GIS / Archaeologist         http://www.geocities.com/dannsdinosaurs
Melbourne, Australia        http://heretichides.soffiles.com
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