Communities

Writing
Writing
Codidact Meta
Codidact Meta
The Great Outdoors
The Great Outdoors
Photography & Video
Photography & Video
Scientific Speculation
Scientific Speculation
Cooking
Cooking
Electrical Engineering
Electrical Engineering
Judaism
Judaism
Languages & Linguistics
Languages & Linguistics
Software Development
Software Development
Mathematics
Mathematics
Christianity
Christianity
Code Golf
Code Golf
Music
Music
Physics
Physics
Linux Systems
Linux Systems
Power Users
Power Users
Tabletop RPGs
Tabletop RPGs
Community Proposals
Community Proposals
tag:snake search within a tag
answers:0 unanswered questions
user:xxxx search by author id
score:0.5 posts with 0.5+ score
"snake oil" exact phrase
votes:4 posts with 4+ votes
created:<1w created < 1 week ago
post_type:xxxx type of post
Search help
Notifications
Mark all as read See all your notifications »
Q&A

How would Humanoid Insects Molt?

+0
−0

I am writing a story that has insects the size of humans, but I am having a little trouble with the biology.

When you look up why there are no large insects on Earth, the most popular answer is that Square-Cube Law limits how large an organism their cardio-respiratory system could support. I feel like this is not that much of a problem to solve though. I just bump up the oxygen levels until things look about right and I'm done.

The problem I have is with molting. Each time an insect molts, it only grows a couple of centimeters. It would take decades just for my aliens to reach the size of a baby. Somehow, they need to grow an whole bunch every time they molt, and I cannot think of how.

In addition, for a while after an insect molts its new exoskeleton is much softer than it normally is. It is actually soft enough that if the insect is put into a confined space, its limbs will harden completely misshapen. Unless I make the gravity really low, the alien will not be able to support it how body weight.

Any ideas?

History
Why does this post require moderator attention?
You might want to add some details to your flag.
Why should this post be closed?

This post was sourced from https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/q/170032. It is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.

0 comment threads

0 answers

Sign up to answer this question »