Insects: The respiratory system is optimized

Insects can hold their breath for many days and still be okay . Nature has provided them with a strange respiratory system, capable of closing the oxygen source to store in the body.

Insect muscle fibers allow them to perform extremely fast movements. For example, wings of many insects can reach an oscillation frequency of 1,000Hz.

This means they need to deliver oxygen quickly to the combustion process at such speeds. New observational technologies can help explain this anomaly. How the insect's respiratory system, which is able to provide the body with the most oxygen quickly and easily, is not exhausted after many days of breathing.

Stefan K. Hetz of Humboldt University in Berlin, Germany said: 'Insect systems are so effective that they do not need to take oxygen when they release CO _2. '

Insects are champions of breathlessness (Source: Softpedia News)

Insects breathe through breathing holes on the body (located on the chest and abdomen). And oxygen is delivered by the trachea to the tissues and muscles. This type of respiratory system is much more effective than vertebrates. And that kind of breathing also prevents insect body growth, which is why insects are so small.

With this type of respiration, insects receive more oxygen directly into their tissues than do vertebrate species. Because vertebrates receive oxygen through hemoglobin molecules in red blood cells of the blood.

These breathing holes can be opened, closed when needed, and can receive large amounts of oxygen at a time, so insects can survive for a long time without breathing.

Dr. Scott Kirkton of Union University, Schenectady, New York explained: 'Insects can survive in anaerobic environment. They can stop breathing but still live for hours or days. Insect metabolism takes place very slowly, and they are capable of closing their breathing holes. If we compare Lance Armstrong, with bees and hummingbirds, among them bees are champions of the ability to regulate oxygen for the body. '

Recent studies show that it is the genetic structure that controls respiration.

Manh Duc