Why Does Evolution Favor Insects More Than Other Animals?

As it turns out insects can breathe in air and they expel carbon dioxide into the air just like us, and all that!  Oh…you knew that?  I did not.  How can they breathe?  Where are their lungs?  Okay I won’t give myself a headache, and I feel one coming on, but I must share something with you concerning why an insect is, from mother nature’s point of view, better than you.

Insects are favored by evolution probably in large part because of the manner in which they breathe.  Scientists call it “discontinuous gas-exchange cycles,” and this means exactly what you think it would: insects are able to survive a good length of time releasing very little or no carbon dioxide into the air at all.

So why is that so great you ask?  Well it is pretty clear.  If an insect can go without breathing, then pathogens are much less likely to enter into its respiratory system, and, therefore, insects are much less likely to die as a result of an offense to its organism.  Is this the only advantage accorded to insects for not expelling as much Co2 as other animals?  No, it is not.  In addition to astronomically decreasing the risk of infection with airborne pathogens, insects are also less likely to have tiny mites and other undesirable creatures make a home in their trachea.  I cannot believe a cricket has a trachea!

Do you know of other insect traits that make us look like weak little mice? Can you think of any invention that could give humans that trait as well?