I have a biology question /sci/

>>7770950

Come on, man.

Couldn't you have asked a serious question?

>>7770953
I'm seriously curious if such a thing is actually possible, basically are there any other roadblocks to giant insects other than the oxygen level in the atmosphere?

Listen to doctor malcom's wise words. You can't play god without consequence.

>>7770963
Not that I've read, no. So your thought experiment would likely succeed considering that what the thought experiment is basically asking is
-If I breed selecting for the largest insects in an environment that could sustain the insect's size, would subsequent generations be larger.

The answer is yes.

>>7770950
This would take a long time, enough time that you and several of your future generations would be dead, and this experiment would mean nothing. There are so many factors that go into the size of an animal, you cannot just will it to happen by artificial selection. Not only are the chances of it failing high, it would fail many times before the mere chances, an ever so slight chance, of a successful generation of larger than normal bug would be bred.
You would have to control the rise of oxygen level throughout the entire experiment, you cannot just flip a switch and allow a saturated oxygen environment. More than likely, everything would be dead before it has a chance to breed. From there, you would have to control the amount of resources available in this habitat, if you have too much living matter could cause the opposite of what you're trying to achieve (more carbon dioxide from decaying matter and living matter that produces CO2), minimal living matter and you'd have to try to balance the chemistry of the system (carbon and nitrogen cycle, food and water cycles). Something the size of a warehouse is impossible. You'd need a global scale version of this experiment. The larger a system, the easier things tend not to get absolutely rekt by the smaller issue. Once you're able to solve all the maintenance issue, you'd need to wait thousands-millions-hundreds of millions of years for everything in the system to evolve to survive in this system. In the end, it may not even produce giant bugs.

>in short, your experiment would fail before it even began.

>>7771222
In Biology by Sadava iirc, they referenced an experiment where researchers actually did create a high oxygen environment for insects and the insects got larger. I don't know the time frame for the experiment. I will provide better source tomorrow.

>>7770950
Actually someone has already done it.

Your question really isn't that stupid.
https://gsa.confex.com/gsa/2010AM/finalprogram/abstract_181665.htm

However it would die the second it left the enclosure.

>>7771235
Oh nevermind. Basedanon got the source already.

>>7771234
But he's talking about 2-3 feet dragonflies, and scorpions and a centipede that was almost 8ft long. That would take some time.
But I'd like to hear about about the report tomorrow, sounds interesting.

>>7770950
I've actually thought about this in respect to crickets. As cricket flour is becoming a hot item and as Earth's population increases insects will become food soon enough.

>>7771180
Oh come now! I can't think of anything that could go wrong by breeding a 3 foot scorpion.
>>7771235
OP here, I was actually serious so thanks for helping me find an answer to this.
>>7771246
I don't think they could be food, the cost of maintaining the oxygenated environment for them would be way too much to offset the extra meat you'd get.

The when there seeing open planets the end before and also today might even broke better yet in almost 20 miles considering how mild the attitude has taken coverage in the mortality trap currently yeah.

>>7771360

I came.

File: insect breathing.jpg (541KB, 2101x1380px) Image search: [Google]

541KB, 2101x1380px

In theory it would be possible, in practice it would fail.
>insects breathe through holes in their body called trachea (pic related)
this system is not as effective for gathering oxygen as that of most other animals. And it works in a complete different way but long story short : more oxygen means they can grow bigger.
>bear in mind that you would get faulty characteristics in your insects as you breed them selectively. Giant dragonflies/millipedes/.... also grew large because this gives them an advantage over an enemy (compare to a blue whale). As hard as you try you will not acquire the same accuracy as nature does over millions of years of evolution. (for instance the headeaches pugs have because of their selctive breeding is a flaw created by breeding in a certain direction without thinking it through.)

>>7771758
Also what this other guys said above : breeding these would require enormous amounts of space.
Example : the picture you uploaded is one of a Meganeura. This "ancestor" of the dragonfly could get wingspans of up to 65cm (those using retarded measurements : 25 inches) and could fly at speeds of 110 km/h. Think about that for a second, think about the space it needs to survive let alone breed.

1. A flash fire would kill all your precious bugs. High oxygen atmospheres kill.

2. It would probably work on getting the bugs bigger given that you only allowed to biggest bugs to reproduce, but it would take longer than you'll live.

3. No insect is "the right choice" for this monstrosity. If you have to pick one, pick one that's easy to kill.


Realistically speaking, maybe in 50 years genetic design will be a real thing, and you'll get to experience your sick fantasies.

But what you describe would never work.