weevilgxth
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ISOPODS
Jul 10, 2022 17:23:19 GMT
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Post by weevilgxth on Jul 10, 2022 17:23:19 GMT
Currently hyperfixating on ISOPODS so I am going to list some of my favorite isopod facts - There is a word for when they roll up into a ball and that word is conglobulation (or conglobulate)! - some species undergo biphasic molting. which means that they shed the back half of the molt first, and then the front half a few days later! It looks very silly but its for safety purposes - They aren't bugs. They're crustaceans! Terrestrial isopods are quite a bit smaller than marine isopods, but both are adorable - There are about 5,000 species of terrestrial isopods <3 - they are so cute - i love them
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Post by potionsalesman on Jul 11, 2022 1:27:07 GMT
have you seen the cow colored and the rubber ducky isopods? they are Effervescent
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Post by Blue (sporkified) on Jul 11, 2022 16:26:29 GMT
are there any really big terrestrial isopods or are they all teensy?
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weevilgxth
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Post by weevilgxth on Jul 12, 2022 22:59:27 GMT
have you seen the cow colored and the rubber ducky isopods? they are Effervescent i love those guys SO MUCH i would love to have some rubber ducky isopods but they're crazy expensive T_T I do have plans in the near feature to get some Dairy Cows since they're considered one of the best beginner-friendly isopods but. we shall see
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weevilgxth
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Post by weevilgxth on Jul 12, 2022 23:22:22 GMT
are there any really big terrestrial isopods or are they all teensy? The largest terrestrial isopod is Helleria brevicornis! They unfortunately generally only get up to 27mm/1" in length, which is a little disappointing but they're really pretty little guys! Unfortunately they are pretty expensive, but that's because Helleria females are unique in that they only ever produce one brood in their lifetime. The species is also unique in that they are the only species in their genus, and they have a closer relation to marine isopods than any other terrestrial isopod!! Female Helleria burrow to lay eggs, and will care for the offspring for several weeks after hatching <3
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Post by Blue (sporkified) on Jul 13, 2022 19:11:47 GMT
are there any really big terrestrial isopods or are they all teensy? The largest terrestrial isopod is Helleria brevicornis! They unfortunately generally only get up to 27mm/1" in length, which is a little disappointing but they're really pretty little guys! Unfortunately they are pretty expensive, but that's because Helleria females are unique in that they only ever produce one brood in their lifetime. The species is also unique in that they are the only species in their genus, and they have a closer relation to marine isopods than any other terrestrial isopod!! Female Helleria burrow to lay eggs, and will care for the offspring for several weeks after hatching :) <3 that is amazing!!! thank you for these lovely facts
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Post by potionsalesman on Jul 14, 2022 5:14:48 GMT
The largest terrestrial isopod is Helleria brevicornis! They unfortunately generally only get up to 27mm/1" in length, which is a little disappointing but they're really pretty little guys! Unfortunately they are pretty expensive, but that's because Helleria females are unique in that they only ever produce one brood in their lifetime. The species is also unique in that they are the only species in their genus, and they have a closer relation to marine isopods than any other terrestrial isopod!! Female Helleria burrow to lay eggs, and will care for the offspring for several weeks after hatching <3 that is amazing!!! thank you for these lovely facts given enough funding and time i believe i could make foot long terrestrial isopods. mother nature's roombas.
i know they're not insects - but is their upper size limit determined by how much oxygen is in the air, like with insects? i don't know enough about their way of breathing to know. size is probably also by them molting too, since they're vulnerable before they harden, right? But. lobsters have this problem too and can get pretty big. how possible is my dream on a scale of 1-10?
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Post by Blue (sporkified) on Jul 14, 2022 20:59:33 GMT
that is amazing!!! thank you for these lovely facts given enough funding and time i believe i could make foot long terrestrial isopods. mother nature's roombas. i know they're not insects - but is their upper size limit determined by how much oxygen is in the air, like with insects? i don't know enough about their way of breathing to know. size is probably also by them molting too, since they're vulnerable before they harden, right? But. lobsters have this problem too and can get pretty big. how possible is my dream on a scale of 1-10?
you're certainly right on the oxygen thing. like insects, isopods have open circulatory systems so all their blood (well, haemolymph i guess? idk if it's the same as in insects) is just kinda sloshing around in there. not very efficient for oxygen delivery. to get much larger, it would need to evolve a closed circulatory system like ours, with blood vessels to keep everything organised and prevent the mixing of oxygenated and deoxygenated blood. oh and throw a proper digestive system in there too. another issue is that of breathing. isopods have gills, which are generally fine for water use. but we want them on land. so they're going to need real lungs. and the thing with real lungs is that you have to be able to ventilate - that is, breathe in and out. that is generally difficult for creatures with a hard shell which prevents their thorax expanding and contracting. some larger insects can ventilate to an extent, but they don't have defined lungs either - just tracheoles - and without lungs, they aren't using the most efficient land-based breathing system. there would need to be some pretty sophisticated musculature on the shell pieces as well as (probably) a compromise in how tough the shell is. i dont know much about moulting but i have a feeling that with all our modifications it just got a lot more difficult. i dont see it becoming too much of an issue if we keep our little crime against nature in a lab though right? so, in summary, big guys are totally possible, if you're willing to turn it into something which probably couldn't be called an isopod anymore. actually it's probably closer to an armadillo. so like. a 3/10
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weevilgxth
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Post by weevilgxth on Jul 15, 2022 23:18:30 GMT
given enough funding and time i believe i could make foot long terrestrial isopods. mother nature's roombas. i know they're not insects - but is their upper size limit determined by how much oxygen is in the air, like with insects? i don't know enough about their way of breathing to know. size is probably also by them molting too, since they're vulnerable before they harden, right? But. lobsters have this problem too and can get pretty big. how possible is my dream on a scale of 1-10?
you're certainly right on the oxygen thing. like insects, isopods have open circulatory systems so all their blood (well, haemolymph i guess? idk if it's the same as in insects) is just kinda sloshing around in there. not very efficient for oxygen delivery. to get much larger, it would need to evolve a closed circulatory system like ours, with blood vessels to keep everything organised and prevent the mixing of oxygenated and deoxygenated blood. oh and throw a proper digestive system in there too. another issue is that of breathing. isopods have gills, which are generally fine for water use. but we want them on land. so they're going to need real lungs. and the thing with real lungs is that you have to be able to ventilate - that is, breathe in and out. that is generally difficult for creatures with a hard shell which prevents their thorax expanding and contracting. some larger insects can ventilate to an extent, but they don't have defined lungs either - just tracheoles - and without lungs, they aren't using the most efficient land-based breathing system. there would need to be some pretty sophisticated musculature on the shell pieces as well as (probably) a compromise in how tough the shell is. i dont know much about moulting but i have a feeling that with all our modifications it just got a lot more difficult. i dont see it becoming too much of an issue if we keep our little crime against nature in a lab though right? so, in summary, big guys are totally possible, if you're willing to turn it into something which probably couldn't be called an isopod anymore. actually it's probably closer to an armadillo. so like. a 3/10 If we found a way to give isopods branchiostegal lungs (found in hermit crabs, crustaceans that breath Air oxygen) I would bump that up to about a 6/10.
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Post by potionsalesman on Jul 17, 2022 0:03:28 GMT
you're certainly right on the oxygen thing. like insects, isopods have open circulatory systems so all their blood (well, haemolymph i guess? idk if it's the same as in insects) is just kinda sloshing around in there. not very efficient for oxygen delivery. to get much larger, it would need to evolve a closed circulatory system like ours, with blood vessels to keep everything organised and prevent the mixing of oxygenated and deoxygenated blood. oh and throw a proper digestive system in there too. another issue is that of breathing. isopods have gills, which are generally fine for water use. but we want them on land. so they're going to need real lungs. and the thing with real lungs is that you have to be able to ventilate - that is, breathe in and out. that is generally difficult for creatures with a hard shell which prevents their thorax expanding and contracting. some larger insects can ventilate to an extent, but they don't have defined lungs either - just tracheoles - and without lungs, they aren't using the most efficient land-based breathing system. there would need to be some pretty sophisticated musculature on the shell pieces as well as (probably) a compromise in how tough the shell is. i dont know much about moulting but i have a feeling that with all our modifications it just got a lot more difficult. i dont see it becoming too much of an issue if we keep our little crime against nature in a lab though right? so, in summary, big guys are totally possible, if you're willing to turn it into something which probably couldn't be called an isopod anymore. actually it's probably closer to an armadillo. so like. a 3/10 If we found a way to give isopods branchiostegal lungs (found in hermit crabs, crustaceans that breath Air oxygen) I would bump that up to about a 6/10. OKAY. my understanding was that the upper size limit of insects was determined in part by the percentage of oxygen available in the air (Carboniferous Period had like 35% oxygen instead of today's like 21%). Even if they didn't have a more complex/efficient circulatory system, they got by back then because the air alone was oxygenated enough for it to not matter.
So: if you raised insects in conditions where the oxygen level was much higher, you could purposefully select for the very biggest insects and then after a very long time you could potentially have scorpions as big as cats like there were back in the day, right?
but I guess it doesn't matter That Much because they breathe through gills. with branchiostegal lungs - is it Only hermit crabs that have them? how do those coconut crabs do it? could we potentially have a coconut crab sized isopod? and even if gills Aren't the best for breathing on land, isopods still seem to be doing okay. would keeping our beautiful creations in a very humid environment be sufficient for them to breathe through those gills? I have so many questions.
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weevilgxth
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Post by weevilgxth on Jul 17, 2022 2:47:50 GMT
If we found a way to give isopods branchiostegal lungs (found in hermit crabs, crustaceans that breath Air oxygen) I would bump that up to about a 6/10. OKAY. my understanding was that the upper size limit of insects was determined in part by the percentage of oxygen available in the air (Carboniferous Period had like 35% oxygen instead of today's like 21%). Even if they didn't have a more complex/efficient circulatory system, they got by back then because the air alone was oxygenated enough for it to not matter.
So: if you raised insects in conditions where the oxygen level was much higher, you could purposefully select for the very biggest insects and then after a very long time you could potentially have scorpions as big as cats like there were back in the day, right?
but I guess it doesn't matter That Much because they breathe through gills. with branchiostegal lungs - is it Only hermit crabs that have them? how do those coconut crabs do it? could we potentially have a coconut crab sized isopod? and even if gills Aren't the best for breathing on land, isopods still seem to be doing okay. would keeping our beautiful creations in a very humid environment be sufficient for them to breathe through those gills? I have so many questions.
Most terrestrial isopods have modified gills called pleopods, which have tubelike structures inside called pseudotrachea (which as a side note, pseudotrachea are most commonly found in flies)(second side note, pleopods are visible near the tail end of isopods, and typically appear as small white patches). Most insects breathe via spiracles (small openings on the surface of their exoskeleton which directly deliver oxygen to the tissues), and pleopods sort of function like that? Isopods tend to be found underneath rotting wood and beneath leaf litter not just because it's a food source for them, but having a humid environment is critical to their survival because if they aren't slightly damp, their pleopods will fail to work and they'll essentially suffocate. (Similarly, the pleopods also don't work if they're fully submerged in water for long periods of time, and they'll drown). I do 100% agree that a very humid environment would be a necessity- if we were to select any particular species as the candidate for The Biggening, they would have to be one that doesn't require a sharp moisture gradient. Some isopods require both damp areas and bone-dry areas in order to survive, and unless they were placed in a very large controlled environment, it would be difficult to maintain that with higher humidity. tl;dr if we made a giant climate-controlled tank and added some nice hardy isopods* and selectively bred them to be large and gradually raised the oxygen levels/humidity through generations, it may be possible we could get some Roombas *my personal candidates are: - Armadillidium vulgare (common pill bug) - Decently hardy, literally everywhere
- Porcellionides pruinosis (powder orange/powder blue) - also decently hardy
- Porcellio scaber (common rough woodlouse) - also decently hardy (2)
- Trichorhina tormentosa (dwarf tropical white) - they are very small, but are the #1 isopod for tropical vivariums because they THRIVE in high humidity. They're also the only isopod I've seen recommended for keeping with frogs because most isopods will straight up die in those moisture levels.
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Post by potionsalesman on Jul 19, 2022 1:33:08 GMT
OKAY. my understanding was that the upper size limit of insects was determined in part by the percentage of oxygen available in the air (Carboniferous Period had like 35% oxygen instead of today's like 21%). Even if they didn't have a more complex/efficient circulatory system, they got by back then because the air alone was oxygenated enough for it to not matter.
So: if you raised insects in conditions where the oxygen level was much higher, you could purposefully select for the very biggest insects and then after a very long time you could potentially have scorpions as big as cats like there were back in the day, right?
but I guess it doesn't matter That Much because they breathe through gills. with branchiostegal lungs - is it Only hermit crabs that have them? how do those coconut crabs do it? could we potentially have a coconut crab sized isopod? and even if gills Aren't the best for breathing on land, isopods still seem to be doing okay. would keeping our beautiful creations in a very humid environment be sufficient for them to breathe through those gills? I have so many questions.
Most terrestrial isopods have modified gills called pleopods, which have tubelike structures inside called pseudotrachea (which as a side note, pseudotrachea are most commonly found in flies)(second side note, pleopods are visible near the tail end of isopods, and typically appear as small white patches). Most insects breathe via spiracles (small openings on the surface of their exoskeleton which directly deliver oxygen to the tissues), and pleopods sort of function like that? Isopods tend to be found underneath rotting wood and beneath leaf litter not just because it's a food source for them, but having a humid environment is critical to their survival because if they aren't slightly damp, their pleopods will fail to work and they'll essentially suffocate. (Similarly, the pleopods also don't work if they're fully submerged in water for long periods of time, and they'll drown). I do 100% agree that a very humid environment would be a necessity- if we were to select any particular species as the candidate for The Biggening, they would have to be one that doesn't require a sharp moisture gradient. Some isopods require both damp areas and bone-dry areas in order to survive, and unless they were placed in a very large controlled environment, it would be difficult to maintain that with higher humidity. tl;dr if we made a giant climate-controlled tank and added some nice hardy isopods* and selectively bred them to be large and gradually raised the oxygen levels/humidity through generations, it may be possible we could get some Roombas *my personal candidates are: - Armadillidium vulgare (common pill bug) - Decently hardy, literally everywhere
- Porcellionides pruinosis (powder orange/powder blue) - also decently hardy
- Porcellio scaber (common rough woodlouse) - also decently hardy (2)
- Trichorhina tormentosa (dwarf tropical white) - they are very small, but are the #1 isopod for tropical vivariums because they THRIVE in high humidity. They're also the only isopod I've seen recommended for keeping with frogs because most isopods will straight up die in those moisture levels.
hmm... if we want these Beautiful Roombas to be in every household then the humidity thing will for sure be a problem... but... not being the ideal house pet doesn't mean they couldn't be great for specialized jobs. would a few Big Isopods have more Isopod Powertm than their combined weight in lil' isopods? or is their small stature one of their greatest strengths? honestly, i only asked the question in the first place because i wanted to carry one around like a baby and pet it like a cat. she could eat the bananas when they get too ripe.
slightly off topic: should i try introducing isopods to my worm composting bin?
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