Phylogeny of Insects - The Most Successful Animals EVER!

[@ClintsReptiles]

Over 24 MINUTES of BONUS content from this video, exclusively for our Stinkin' Rad Fans on Patreon! Patreon is a great way to support Clint's Reptiles AND get awesome extras (including hundreds of other bonus videos)! www.patreon.com/posts/video-patreon-106904284

[@HassanMohamed-rm1cb]

Hey Clint Laidlaw, Why don't you get to think of a suggestion and creating a KZbin Videos all about the 🪲Phylogeny Group Of Beetles🪲on the next Clint's Reptiles on the next Saturday coming up next?!⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️👍👍👍👍👍

[@HassanMohamed-rm1cb]

Hey Clint Laidlaw, Why don't you get to think of a suggestion and creating a KZbin Videos all about the 🪼Phylogeny Group Of Jellyfish🪼on the next Clint's Reptiles on the next Saturday coming up next?!⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️👍👍👍👍👍

[@An0mal0car1s]

I know you probably won't ever see this, but I would LOVE to see a video on heterotera and bugs like the assassin bug as I find them so fascinating

[@lukearts2954]

why would you assume that the hemolymph wouldn't transport oxygen in larvae?

[@antaresmc4407]

I'd like to add a correction about the section on insect size: while the square cube law limits the size of organisms, it doesnt really make the animal have less exoskeleton as it scales up, exoskeleta become thicker in larger arthropods... the same scaling limitations apply to endoskeleta, and anyway its not the bones what limit the size of chordates either... Insects' skeleta do limit their size but that's a different thing, it has to do with molting time and difficulty... Their breathing is also probably not the problem, that long straw problem you mentioned is even worse if it was dense viscous blood than air. Also the giant carboniferous insects existed both before and after the oxygen spike, and there's some studies thar argue preservation bias obscures a more modern-like average size of insects, with tetrapods eventually taking over large niches after the rainforest collapse... I haven't found any study on the scaling laws on insect breathing with updated models (aka not passive convection through the spiracles...), but to me they sound close enough to lungs, and in chordates' lungs arent the limiting factor either... About dragonfly respiration, Im not exactly sure either, but they apparently can also do gas exchange through their skin and spiracles and there's apparently a lot of diffusion at play, nymves are pretty small so maybe it just diffuses from the guills?

[@NitroIndigo]

Insects being reclassified as crustaceans helped me understand why there are basically no insects in the ocean: insects are the terrestrial branch of crustaceans. Along with the other hexapods. And woodlice. I also think the reason why there are so many described species of insects is because they're easy to find. I once read that most _individual_ animals are nematodes, which makes me wonder if there could be even more species of them than insects, but most of them live at the bottom of the ocean or something.

[@titanomachy2217]

And most nematodes look identical to one another so it is incredibly hard to distinguish different species. Hexapods definitely feature the most morphological variety of any class of organisms, but it is possible that other groups that are even more numerous in terms of individual animals and more ubiquitous around the Earth like the Acari (mites and ticks) and Nematoda are actually more species-rich and we just don't know it. Nematodes are a phylum so it isn't really fair to compare them to insects rather than arthropods as a whole, but the mites and ticks (Acari or Acarina) form an order, a full step down the taxonomic system from a class, like the Insecta. Mites do live absolutely everywhere, perhaps even moreso than nematodes, although there are probably more nematodes in total. Most nematodes either live in water or moist soil or are parasites, limiting the environments they live in, whereas mites live all over the land, even the dry areas, and as parasites and they even have one group that lives throughout the Earth's oceans. I feel like most people come into contact with more mites than nematodes.

[@vincentx2850]

There are a weird lineage of marine insects called the sea skaters. Some of them are truly oceanic creatures, though like the pond striders they cannot swim, but instead walk on water surfaces.

[@tulliusexmisc2191]

@@vincentx2850 Indeed. there are no (live) insects in the oceans, but there are a few on the oceans.

[@RageReq0]

I've always just considered crustaceans(of the ocean) to be insects. They've got similar eyes, similar bodies, similar legs, etc

[@zebedeemadness2672]

@@RageReq0 More the other way round, insects (class insecta) are crustaceans, but crustaceans that aren't in the class insecta aren't Insects.

[@KAZVorpal]

Insects with external gills, like damselfly nymphs, transport oxygen to the rest of their body exactly the same way that every other insect does: Through tiny internal tubes called tracheae. The gills exchange oxygen to the air inside the trachea, which then transport that air to the rest of their body just the same way any other insect's trachea do. Also, it is more technically correct to refer to hemimetabolous insect juveniles as nymphs, not larvae. Holometabolous insects have larvae.

[@jredmane]

Best comment. Thanks for the info!

[@andrewgraves4026]

Wow, go Vorpal.

[@petrfedor1851]

Oh yeah, the trachea with extra steps!

[@lodewykk]

Holy moly. Well, while that makes absolutely no sense sense, that is the one thing I was not expecting.

[@dsxa918]

Let it snow let it snow let it snow

[@BugKeeperJosh]

About the gills: the gills of naiads like damselfly and mayfly nymphs are thin extensions of the body wall that are filled with tracheae. Oxygen diffuses through the cuticle and enters the tracheae, where it's distributed throughout the body. Since these insects' spiracles are permanently closed throughout nymphhood, this is the only way they can obtain oxygen, but it's not only done with the gills. The rest of the body can also absorb some oxygen, often enough for the nymph to survive without gills. However, the gills are great at increasing respiration if the water is low in oxygen, and many spp like mayflies can flap their gills to increase water flow around the animal. ALSO dragonfly naiads breathe through their rectums! They're blessed with very oxygen-permeable butt-cuticles and lots of tracheae near that surface.

[@hamishfox]

Man, I with I had oxygen-permeable butt-cuticles. Sulk.

[@nathangamble125]

@@hamishfox You *do* have oxygen-permeable butt-cuticles. This isn't even a joke. It was discovered about 3 years ago that mammals (including humans) can absorb oxygen through our recta, and a procedure which uses it called _enteral ventilation_ is being developed as a way to treat people with respiratory failure. Beyond limbs and basic bilateral body structure, oxygen-permeable butt-cuticles are one of the few anatomical features which we share with insects.

[@gipadonimus]

I heard something while looking into this that some species (especially dragon fly *nymphs) can use these functions for thermoregulation and ion exchange. They get a lot done with their butts lmao

[@chloewright1]

​@@hamishfox😂😂😂

Many insects have hemocyanins (and some, hemoglobins) that transport oxygen in their hemolymph, though: _“…The extracellular hemoglobins in the hemolymph of chironomid midges are evolutionary derivatives of the intracellular insect hemoglobins, which emerged in response to the hypoxic environment of the larvae. In addition, several hemoglobin variants of unknown functions have been discovered in insect genomes. Hemocyanins transport oxygen in the hemolymph of stoneflies, but also in the Entognatha and most hemimetabolan taxa. Apparently, hemocyanin has been lost in Holometabola. At present, no physiological or morphological character is known that could explain the presence or loss of hemocyanins in distinct taxa. Nevertheless, the occurrence of respiratory proteins in insects adds further complexity to our view on insect respiration.”_ - DOI: 10.1016/j.jinsphys.2006.12.006

[@jan-seli]

Clint a few years ago: hey look at this cool snake Clint today: detailed evaluation of phylogeny trees

[@giovanni012]

Yup. It, too, initially came across this channel to find out more about pet snakes, but it’s nice to see the channel expand and include more educational content.

[@titanomachy2217]

I love how Clint says "like some sort of water fish" rather than just "like some sort of fish" to differentiate fish that are aquatic from "land fish" like us who descend from fish that clambered up onto terra firma.

[@spambaconeggspamspam]

Normalize using Fish as a monphyletic name! Craniata doesn't blow people's.... cranium as much.

[@nathanielreichert4638]

Nah he said “water fish,” to differentiate them from the fire fish, earth fish, and air fish. 😅

[@Tera_B_Twilight]

@@nathanielreichert4638 Everything changed when the firefish nation attacked.

[@RabblesTheBinx]

I've taken to "aquatic fish", myself. It just seems to fit better in scientific conversation. Like, we don't call dinosaurs that died in the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction event "non-bird dinosaurs", we call them "non-avian dinosaurs". It's a stupid preference, but it's mine. But honestly, yeah, I'm glad that science communicators are starting to clarify these kinds of things. Recent discoveries in cladistics and genetics have really changed how we view a lot of those things. Like, for _years_ we were told that we shared a common ancestor with apes and monkeys, but were neither (though more closely related to apes), but now we know that not only are we _definitely_ a species of ape, _apes are monkeys._ Every time someone called a chimpanzee a monkey and you (or anyone else) corrected them by saying, "Actually, it's an ape, not a monkey," you were _wrong._ so, we need to be more precise with our wording in casual speech, too, imo. Like "non-hominid monkeys" to refer to Old World and New World monkeys in a way which excludes apes. Or "non-avian reptiles" to refer to reptiles while excluding birds. Or "aquatic fish", etc. Honestly we should probably come up with a word to describe wolves while excluding dogs, since the domestic dog is a subspecies of C. lupus, which means that chihuahuas are wolves.

[@GoingtoHecq]

It actually flopped onto Terra firma. Floppered even, but not clambered jk

[@mystra13]

Insects ✔️ Learning ✔️ Movie references ✔️ Clint referencing one of my all time favourite movies ✔️✔️✔️

[@dsxa918]

Let it snow let it snow let it snow

[@knotsbygordion]

We're into this, Clint.

[@alveolate]

he promised us 6 years of insect videos! Clint's Insects subchannel?

[@matowakan]

Its funny how humanity is divided into 2 classes, those who are absolutely disgusted by bugs, and those who are absolutely enamored by them.

[@alveolate]

@@matowakan believe it or not, i'm actually somewhere in between... i think bugs are amazing and super intriguing; but i also would prefer them to be in videos on my screen xD

[@dazc9965]

Clint has to have some of the most easily-approachable and entertaining phylogeny content on this platform. His enthusiasm about all animals and life on earth is absolutely infectious and he makes the information so digestible and fun, you can tell how much he just wants people to learn. Thank you Clint!! You're the reason for so much of my understanding and continued curiosity about the living things on this planet, your videos are such a wonderful introduction on the topic to lead to deeper interest.

[@Arcqueline]

Ahhh. Drinking coffee. Learning about insects. It's a good morning.

[@gupadre8255]

Thanks bro

[@wilfridwibblesworth2613]

Then when you finish your coffee there is a large, crusty-shelled & boiled-to-death species of insect in the final dregs to remind you that even when preparing the coffee you should be aware of these little critters.

[@gupadre8255]

@@wilfridwibblesworth2613 holy yap master

[@Arcqueline]

Welp. You'll have that with coffee from time to time.

[@Draconianoverlord55]

I mean it is super interesting and I love all animals but insects will always be a little Yukie 😅

[@ZiearMcoy]

I was just thinking as a I watched this video... I came here years ago because I was interested if bearded dragons, leopard geckos and hognoses were good pets. Now I'm sitting here learning about the phylogeny of insects. I love the progression of this channel. Thanks Clint for being one of the most interesting KZbin channels out there. ☺

[@OvisArcana]

man, i wish more people loved insects. they are so incredible! truly one of the most amazing groups of animals, it's a shame so many people are afraid of them.

[@jamesmiller4184]

Interesting weirdly! Actually, to most the lot of their billions of species comprise HORRORS beyond compare! How very perverse (to put it very leastwise and kindly) that 'some' would find such utter demonstrated ghastliness as WONDROUS! We of . . . 👿"The Anti-Insect League" 👿 endeavor and plan TO ELIMINATE entirely from this earth, ALL of such! They will rasp you; they will sting you; they will inject more ghastly horror of parasites into you (the "kissing bug"!); they will chew your sorry rear; they will poison you; they will present themselves variously to us as UNINVITED and, do ALL MANNER of invasive and sneaky harm to their far betters -- WE -- of the non-primitive and said far-better! NOTE: The League mentioned above is but one minor division of . . . 😡" . : . The Minions of Anti-Midas . : . " 😡 it comprised of many millions that have "had it" generally, all being as heart-pledged to the uniform liquidation of all that is of the DEMONSTRABLY INTOLERABLE, which IS almost everything extant! (😧Oy!) Spread the word, Ovis!

[@quint2568]

Probably because insects contain prolly 90 out of the top 100 most infuriating animals on the planet, lice, roaches, ants, mosquitoes, crabs (the STD) termites, flies.... You get the point. Some are cool, but given a bad name by the bad offenders.

[@OvisArcana]

@@quint2568 i'm definitely biased cuz ants, roaches, termites, flies and mosquitoes are all some of my fav animals xD i get ur point tho. i suppose a lot of people hate animals if they actively annoy them. i just think it's a shame, cuz they're all super fun and interesting to watch and talk about, even if they do get on my nerves sometimes.

[@RealBelisariusCawl]

I have a personal beef with flying members of Hymenoptera but that’s a phobia - they’re beautiful animals.

[@royalladybug30]

I would love them (except for spiders, phobia) if they were outside of my home. Once they come they are DOA

[@robinmatz6686]

The acid helmet Termite looked insane, but i would love more "Is this the right pet invertebrate for you?" on more obscure roaches. There are some really fancy ones

[@suchnothing]

That would be fun! I'm just guessing here, but I feel like pet cockroaches either THRIVE on neglect or die in spite of your best efforts depending on the species, and there's no in between 😂 It's just the vibe I get from them.

[@ferretyluv]

Giant Madagascan hissing cockroach is the one usually sold as pets.

[@odinmatanguihan5086]

I think I frequently see one of these acid helmet termite species. The one I see is unlike other termites in the sense that they don't hide inside mounds or muddy tunnels all the time. They go out in the open when it's cool(usually after dark), and the workers graze on thin bark like cattle, while the perimeter of the herd is defended by the soldiers. It's the soldiers that have that acid helmet. They are frequently surrounded by trapjaw ants looking for a gap in the defenses. If they're lucky the get to snap on a termite which falls to the ground and is caught by their peer. If they're not lucky, the soldiers find them, the nozzled head vibrates, and the ant falls crumpled over. My theory is that they either spray some sort of chemical, or that the head vibration is so fast that it delivers some sort of supersonic shock that hurts the ants. But this vid pushes me towards the chemical theory.

[@matowakan]

like emerald roaches

[@kasenchristy90]

The arthropod videos are always my favorite!

[@Caffin8tor]

Clint: gushes about insects for nearly 30 minutes... Apollo the grey: it's a bug!

[@PaleoAnalysis]

Wow! Clint finally drops his insect Phylogeny video and and he managed to condense it into less than 30 minutes! Consider me impressed! So... Judging by this you will probably be able to fit the rest of the Phylogeny video into shorts then, right? 👀

[@PaleoAnalysis]

26:30 Oop... Guess I spoke too soon! 😅

[@metal_pipe9764]

Why did you think he'd even do that?

[@FaerieDragonZook]

I expected 72 hours out of an 80 hour condensed video of all animals.

[@metal_pipe9764]

@@FaerieDragonZook this may be a shock to you, but not all animals are insects

[@FaerieDragonZook]

@@metal_pipe9764 It's a rounding error.

[@abyss7539]

Love your arthropod videos! I plan on going into Entomology in college, and your classification videos are amazing reference material and just plain fun to watch. Keep doing what you’re doing Clint!

[@bugjams]

Just remember that insects are not crustaceans, like he keeps saying. This is a misconception based on how taxonomy has changed in recent years. The name "pancrustacea" is not even widely accepted yet in Academia. Obviously they're related, but crustaceans like crabs and lobsters are part of a wide offshoot evolutionary branch than things like butterflies or grasshoppers. I love Clint but him saying bugs = crustaceans is like my one nagging pet peeve about him. It's a misunderstanding of the current state of taxonomy.

[@abyss7539]

@ Idk, I don’t have a problem with it. It seems, at least with some sources, that the consensus is shifting that way. Plus, the important thing isn’t really the labels. Technically all birds can be considered a type of reptile, so long as their dinosaur ancestors can be considered “reptiles”. The closest living relative to birds is the crocodile, a reptile. I think it’s a fair suggestion that insects are a type of distantly related land-based crustacean. But the really important thing is that you’re clear on what you’re using with terms. He explains where he’s coming from perfectly, and he’s not purposefully misrepresenting anything tmk.

[@jacobvaness975]

Clint is such a wholesome guy. Thats honestly my favorite part about his videos

[@nadatellin4866]

In Italy as a Boy Scout we had a camping event on MT. Vesuvius, at night the entire campground would be covered in earwigs as soon as the sun went down, so thick that we couldn't see the fabric of our tents.. i slept beside the fire all four nights

[@YochevedDesigns]

Allow me to be the first to say "Ewwww!" I think I'd rather the volcano become active again. 😮

[@ag6475]

@@YochevedDesigns you can't know, I hope, but that's not a nice thing to say in italy

[@YochevedDesigns]

@@ag6475 No shade against Italians or Italy. I just grew up in California (similar weather) and I was terrified of earwigs when I was little. I think I'm still traumatized.

[@ag6475]

@@YochevedDesigns of course, i should have added something to make clear that was just a coincidence, and nothing serious anyway, don't worry you could have offended only the bugs ^^

[@Anthony-rb8ib]

Wow thanks Clint for summoning an insect to attack me right when I started watching this video! I've never felt so immersed in a video before!

[@suchnothing]

4D experience

[@danielkidder1313]

Left me hanging on beetles, ants, and butterflies

[@conlon4332]

1:02 This may be biased by the fact that we have described a far higher proportion of land animals than marine animals.

[@revenantwolzart]

What a dedication to wear an insect themed tie!

[@hamishfox]

I would LOVE a deeper dive into cockroaches (and termites). It's always interesting to learn about animals that get a bad rap and learn what they're really like.

[@dorianr4770]

yeah, madagascar hissing cockroaches hiss out of their butt and don't have wings and are often used in movies because they are big and easy to catch and work with... plus, once I took care of some for the Biology dept., they had hamster wheels, would nibble on lettuce. I found them endearing in their own way.

[@astick5249]

@@dorianr4770 *Hamster wheels*

[@eadgyth5009]

I saw a video a few months back that said meganeura lasted much later than the other giant arthropods because their flying muscles acted like diaphragms, pulling air through the tracheal system far more effectively than passive breathing.

[@PaulPaulPaulson]

I didn't even know the word phylogeny, now these are my favorite videos!

[@IrinaGreenman]

As an academic, I 10000% agree with your assessment of academics at the end there! 😂 In all seriousness, there's one thing in this video that in my opinion makes it one of the most important you've ever made. And that is the number of times you showcase the learning process, both individual and at the level of the broader scientific community. It's so easy for newer learners in any field to compare themselves to someone more fully established and think, I will never be actually qualified in this field, because there's just so much I still have to learn. Showing that even experts have to research is something I've long appreciated about this channel; showing that even experts sometimes have to just ask others for help, and *that's completely okay*, is such an important message. What matters most is the ability to seek out knowledge, and the ability to identify when you've found a correct answer. Both of these are learnable and teachable skills, and all of us viewers should be grateful that Clint is teaching us.

[@eroraf8637]

The life of a scientist is merely a continual progression to lesser stages of unqualified. We never truly graduate from Team Unqualified, we just become more cognizant of the ratio of what we know to what there is to know.

[@SatanicBiPanick666]

I think that’s the defining trait of good scientists. You all get so excited when you realize there’s more to learn! My favorite example was hearing someone who specialized in fish anatomy become absolutely awed and flabbergasted by the crazy growth forms of aquatic plants 😁

[@SatchwellSavitts]

Absolutely phenomenal footage. I've dabbled in insect macro myself but it doesn't compare. The insect world is incredible. I find a lot of people are either disgusted or terrified of bugs which I assume is because what they don't know scares them. The more I learn about bugs the more comfortable I am with them and learn to respect them

[@artifalse]

yeah its a studied area of psychology what causes fear, the unknown being a common trigger of phobia. ive watched as my friends become less scared of bugs as i tell them all sorts of facts about them, too :3

[@Ravum]

I love insects, especially ants, but their mouthparts are usually horrifying.

[@patrickmorrey8722]

Part of it is definitely that insects are so vastly different from us that they feel alien and scary but evolution is also at fault here because it has taught us that insects are associated with disease and filth. Because of that, we are grossed out and want to stay away from them. I love holding millipedes but that's about the limit of what I can handle before I instinctually start freaking out.

[@ianisdehez4692]

The idea of a video about how the wings of dragonflies and their relatives changed shape over millions of years would be absolutely awesome

[@ForestSchweitzer022097]

I cannot tell you how excited I was to see that you had released a video on insect taxonomy

[@beclouise8686]

My favourite time of the weekend! Freshly baked Clint videos!

[@areallyshortbrontothere]

Indeed

[@ArcticTron]

Man I remember when I first learned of the Webspinners, I think I was just randomly browsing Wikipedia looking at Phasmatodea when I stumbled upon their article. I think I then watched a video about them from Deep Look (Good channel by the way) and I think besides the web spinning the craziest thing I learned about them is that they move faster going backwards than forwards. They hold a special place in my heart because they made me truly realize just how diverse insects were, and I already knew they were diverse, but it took me learning about an insect that spins webs that to me seemed like something more people should have taught me about to make me realize that I perhaps don't know as much about insects as I thought I did. Also, I suppose if any one group of animals needed and deserved more than one video to explain their phylogeny it would be insects.

[@YochevedDesigns]

"Browsing Wikipedia looking at phasmatodea", you know, as one does on an average Tuesday morning. 😅

[@ArcticTron]

@@YochevedDesigns To be fair I don't what I was doing, for some reason I have in my head I might have looked at it due to the video game Disco Elysium (if you know you know), but I really don't know.

[@RomulusTheWild6693]

With the recent discovery of that wasp mimic mantis, I can't wait to get a mimicry episode

[@origamigangster2431]

The only teacher I could ever need 😤🙏🙏

[@tjeales]

6 years of insect content would suit me fine 😂

[@RabblesTheBinx]

1:39 you say that now, but just wait until I finish creating my embiggening ray.

[@unofficialgrasseater]

I cant wait for the next video!!! I loved listening to you talk about these insects, and I'm super excited to learn about this last clade!!!

[@JohnDrummondPhoto]

I was today years old when I learned that termites are cockroaches. I always thought they were allied with ants, wasps, and bees because of their social structure. Never too old to learn something new! And yes, I want that Eumetabola video ASAP.

[@MayheM_72]

Of COURSE we are ALL entertained, Clint! I could listen to you going on and on forever about animals, from "best pet?" to the complex organization of animals! Your passion is contagious!

[@conlon4332]

20:37 I love how he says "uninvited" because we all know he loves to keep pet cockroaches!

[@Evangelium]

I was sad when this video ended. I love so many types of arthropods that I can watch hours upon hours of phylogeny. I hope that Scarabaeidae will be an hours long thesis or dissertation though!

[@A4E2X1L3]

Please make a whole video about how dragonflys and other insects diffrently fly

[@garycurrier1037]

Also hummingbirds compared to other birds and pufferfish compared to other fish and amongst other animals that have specialized mobility

[@simonmcglary]

Looking forward to that next one. That, collectively, insects are probably the most important species for survival of life on the planet demonstrates the “size doesn’t matter” very differently!

[@bluesnowfox361]

"-like, you know, some sort of a 'water-fish'.." XD

[@iramoser6136]

I had to back the video up to see if he really said that. 😆

[@JeffreyAu1]

An entire video on Mantids would be amazing!

[@PandamaticBreakcore]

Insects have a wildly effective body plan, really up there with evolution's greatest hits imo

[@gajos1495]

0:41 2 million ants? Just for me? Aww how thoughtful of you.😊

[@CriticalofOnions]

I definitely can't wait to see part 2: featuring Hemipterans, Coleopterans and more... cuz I'm into that sort of thing. It'd also be cool to see a deeper dive on Orthoptera at some point!

[@nablamakabama488]

You’re definitely in the same team as nature itself in loving Coleopterans.

[@George-bb9kr]

@@CriticalofOnions Surpised he hasnt mentioned collembolans either. Technically not an insect but still

[@Eosinophyllis]

Same here! I love Hymenoptera and love phylogeny sooo much

[@CriticalofOnions]

@nablamakabama488 can ya blame either of us? Why have a few species of em when you can have up to a million? Or even better, an (estimated) 1.9 - 2.1 million!

[@swatsaw6]

I wish I could express how much I love these phylogeny videos - it's like ive been looking for such videos for so long and thank you youtube algorithm and thank you guys!!!

[@exomake_mehorololo]

🎉Yes! insects! I'd love to take a time machine to the Carboniferous for some giant insect watching! 😊

[@plumpengu]

clint as an aspiring entomologist would love if you talked about any of these in their own video like i’ll just sit and watch forever

[@charliekelly1435]

Hey Clint, love your videos! A cool video suggestion could be to do a video going in depth on common feeder insects. They’re insects lots of people would be relatively familiar with but probably don’t know a lot about them. But either way great video!

[@ClintsReptiles]

We did that a few years ago :) Great suggestion!

[@Hurricayne92]

Honestly did not expect a extensive explaination of the square-cube law but I'm all here for it

[@conlon4332]

22:44 In Britain we call them ladybirds, even though they're far more distantly related to birds than to bugs.

[@Lemu_with_a_shirt]

It is also said that they used to be called ladycows, and I don't think they're closely related to cows either, but I'm just guessing there

[@mattgretmagoogann3381]

As somebody with a vague fondness for insects, I loved this video. I learnt so much, thanks Clint.

[@Ghostchickie]

Only way bugs will get as big as us is if we accidentally set Mermaid Man’s belt to the Wombo settings.

[@ralmendares77]

I wombo, you wombo, me wombo... WOMBO!

[@Hurricayne92]

I read that as Warmbo and wondered what that eldritch being had to to with this 😅IYKYK

[@spheresong]

Re: extra oxygen and size, my friend worked at a lab that hyperoxygenated the plants they were working on so the outflow vents of the building were carrying relatively oxygen rich air. Apparently the common wolfspider that had made it's home in the outflow vent was significantly larger than any he had ever seen before.

[@kaiyakershaw1028]

That is fascinating and terrifying at the same time.

[@BetaCentauri13]

Them! is actually one of my favorite monster movies. I watched it initially expecting it to just be hokey and stupid but it was surprisingly well thought out.

[@2old4allthis]

“Make me a sergeant, gimme the booze!”

[@markhenderson6389]

One of my absolute favorite videos on your channel! The variety of insect species is truly amazing. Would love to see more on the dragonfly, mantis, termites and stick insects!

[@gipadonimus]

The key to the gills on Dragon Fly Larvae/Damselflies and similar insects is that they're still tracheal systems, and the fundamental respiratory mechanism is unchanged, although adapted to aquatic life. The oxygen goes directly into the tracheae from the gills (whether internal or external). Externally it's diffused from surrounding water directly into the tracheae within their extrernal lamellae. Internally uses more refined muscle contractions and is drawn into gill tissue to be diffused, basically. At that point the oxygen distribution works just like in terrestrial insects, feeding into the network of tracheae/tracheoles.

[@JoshuaWeirdo]

Definitely want to see it sooner rather than later.

[@Frog_Dogger]

I always thought those unicorn termites looked really cool. I'm just now finding out that they shoot poisonous glue out of those horns, which is just made them even cooler to me! Can't wait for the Eumetabola video, and maybe a deep dive on the Orthoptera. I love all of the gnarly-looking katydids (and their close relatives).

[@dpcooper381]

You need to do a video that includes a discussion of the Myrmeleontidae. Observing and raising ant lions to adulthood as a kid helped draw me into the study of Entomology. Imagine my surprise as a kid when I first discovered this huge flying beast in my cloth-covered jar of doodlebugs.

[@znotch87]

12:02 "Water Fish" :D

[@OrangeCrayfish]

yeah, they typically do be in water tho

[@MajinMattPlays]

Insect speciation has always been an interesting subject to me. I'm hardly a biologist or anyone who would be particularly knowledgable about such subjects, so it's great having these videos as glimpses into things I may have studied if there were any consistent money in the study of long extinct animals. I'm genuinely very impressed with the compression of this video, while still feeling like it's informative to the standards of your other videos on this series.

[@davidcopplestone6266]

Ah "Them!" I love that movie. Also "Tarantula" with a brief appearance by a slightly more famous Clint.

[@olivia.8152]

Thank you Clint!!!!!! I cant wait for more bug videos of all kinds. Every idea you mentioned sounds amazing and i am so into this development of your channel 🙏🏼

[@TyrannoFan]

Hey Clint I just want to say thank you so much for this series, I feel like phylogeny is an overlooked topic in paleontology science comms, to me it's one of the most fascinating aspects of life on our planet. I always get a kick out of two seemingly similar organisms being surprisingly distant, or vice versa. I would like to see plants as well, which is even more ignored in paleontology! I love how, for example, all the things we call "trees" are actually not all part of a monophyletic group, and "trees" convergently evolved the same trunk-leaf structure in many many different distantly related plant lineages!

[@boleeflang3876]

A quick funny language fact, concerning the weirdly named insects: In Dutch, we call mantises, "bidsprinkhanen", literally translated this would be "praying grasshoppers". Because of this, grasshoppers and mantises are always kind of intertwined in my head. Maybe this explains african gladiators being called mantis walking sticks?

[@Spikklubba]

similar theme in Swedish, where mantids are called "prayer crickets" (bönsyrsor). sheep and goats are a common insect naming theme aswell. e.g general term for beetles are "shell-rams", yellowjackets are called "goatlings" (antenna likened to goat horns), and most named species of longhorn beetles end in "-bock" (=males goat or some other hoofed animals)

[@YochevedDesigns]

I love the Dutch language. It's so descriptive. When I visited I always cracked up at the signs reminding you to pick up your "hundpoop". 😂 I had a wonderful time there. Everyone was super nice.

[@boleeflang3876]

@@YochevedDesigns Hehe nothing like some good olf Dutch directness. Glad you liked it here!

[@beclouise8686]

Thanks to sharing a few bushwalk expeditions with a bug nerd friend, I can proudly say I know a liiiiitle but more than the average joe about insects. Just a little bit. Excellent video as always Clint 👏 I had no idea ice crawlers were a thing! Also, would LOVE to see you do a video on TreeHoppers. Theyre probably one of my favourite lil guys 🥰

[@VWHybrid]

As someone who works in Pest Management and has a great appreciation for the tiny animals I work with, I would adore a video or series on insects (or other animals) that are typically thought of as pests. Maybe an appreciation of their niche in nature and where they originated (for invasive species).

[@suchnothing]

As someone who has had bed bugs, thank you for your service 🙏 It would be interesting to learn about insects that only live on/with humans. Bed bugs can feed off of other animals, but they have a strong preference for humans and they only live where humans live. If we went extinct they almost certainly would as well. I believe both species of lice that inhabit humans are in the same situation. It's pretty crazy to know just how niche insect evolution can get.

[@SockyNoob]

I'm soooooooooo in love with this video. I've been begging for this one for years. The insane amount of species is proof insects and arthropods in general are the greatest. Wouldn't mind 6 years of insect videos at all lol.

[@revol_000]

Clint, please, make a shirt design with a termite queen saying "Lookin' like an angel"

[@YochevedDesigns]

There should be another version that says "Yassssss Queen!!!" The termite needs to look extra sassy. 😊

[@dietotaku]

every time I hear that opening chord, all I can think is "So, you have a new reptile for me?" "Yes, sir, I do!" 😂

[@vianneyb.8776]

"Who doesn't love stick bugs?" I'm really sorry, Clint, but for some reason the picture of a giant stick bug on a hand made me recoil on my seat and tense completely, so I guess I don't really like them that much. But that doesn't mean I don't like learning about them! It was a great video, and I can't wait to watch more about insects.

[@Drosenv]

Clint's videos are great! He's got such an engaging personality and infectious enthusiasm. I wish he had been all my science teachers!

[@waffletop1018]

my favorite of all of these has to be dragon and damselflies, they are the most chill of all bugs, they won't fly into your face, or sting you, or bite you, or land on you and scare you half to death, they just sorta sit by you and hang out and as for the earwig's name, maybe they sit on top of your ear a wig for your ear

[@nestornieves4683]

Most insects live short lives that can be measured in weeks or months, so I am guessing that is why there are so many insect species because they go through more generations in a shorter time frame and therefore evolve and branch out into different species quickly. Most 🪰 live less than a month, so in the 80-year lifespan of a single human, there would have passed by at least 960 fly generations and therefore more changes in the species can happen because there are more generations in which change and mutation happens. Although most insects live short lives, I wonder if there are any insects that live comparable lifetimes to larger vertebrates that can be measured in years instead of weeks or months.

[@portatoman9321]

the lesser stag beetles i keep have a lifespan of around 2 years and thats just off the top of my head

[@sweettartschewyenjoyer]

at least in captivity, blue death feigning beetles live around 8 years, which is HELLA impressive for an insect! i googled it a bit bc i’m no expert but apparently queen ants/termites can live decades long, and the splendour beetles can live about 30 years!!

[@tulliusexmisc2191]

If you happen to live in the right parts of the USA, you should be enjoying (or at least experiencing) huge numbers of 17-year-old cicadas right now. There are various other insects with a similar way of life, living for several years in a secluded position on or in a plant before reaching adulthood. Some colonies of social insects live for many years, often with the same founders. In some termite species, the queens (and I guess maybe also the kings?) can live for decades. i don't think any insect has matched the oldest known spider, who died in the wild at the age of 43. Killed by an insect, naturally.

[@DJFracus]

Shorter generations is pretty normal for small animals. You need less time for juveniles to mature into an adult that can reproduce successfully. I'd say the biggest reason is the one that is ancestral to almost insects, which is flight. Like the video showed, the only insects that don't descend from a flying common ancestor are silverfish and bristletails. 99.9% of insect species are in the Pterygota, which came from a flying common ancestor. Insects exploded onto the fossil record as flying animals: we basically have no fossils of them before they had wings, and then they were suddenly everywhere. They were the first organisms to fly, ever, which gave them exclusive access to food sources high in the trees that other animals did not have. And they are the only small flying animals ever, while the other three groups of flying animals are all relatively large vertebrates (and a big part of why those three groups evolved was probably to catch flying insects). Complete metamorphosis is also quite unique to insects, and insects with complete metamorphosis are the most successful group. It means that the larvae do not compete with the adults at all, since they occupy completely different ecological niches. With most animals, you compete the hardest with your own species, and adults tend to outcompete babies. This isn't a problem with insects that undergo complete metamorphosis.

[@theodorehodbor5080]

An interesting fact about termites, workers/soldiers are actually technically immature termites that are stuck in their immature state their whole lives while only the termite queen and king are actually "mature" termites technically due to having much darker carapace and being capable of flight (for a time anyway). Unlike with ants and bees whose castes are predetermined before they metamorphose termite castes are determined by their life cycle stage, which means in many termite species if the queen or king dies a normal worker can molt into a new queen/king. When you view termites in this way you can kinda see more how they might be related to cockroaches because when you compare roaches to termite reproductives (the "mature" termite) they do look sort of similar to one another.

[@tell-me-a-story-]

Picture a human society like that. The mayor of a small town is a woman who has a technology that forces all the girls in the town to remain as children/adolescents. Then, she builds a harem of all the men in the town, with whom she has more children, stunting all the girls except for one oldest daughter who will one day kill her, become mayor, and marry her widowers. 😮

[@johnburnside7828]

It's not that the questions are getting more and more difficult. Google is getting worse and worse with answers. Soon it will be totally useless.

[@ricardoludwig4787]

6:36 I find this fact fascinating, because it shows a "flaw" in our classification of species. Insects are absolutely a massively successful group, but the fact that they are small enough to exist in great numbers in almost any environment, but large enough to allow many visible differences in morphology, and also have their habitats in the part that we humans can actually explore (land and freshwater). There are definitely more unicellular protists with unimaginable variation in their genomes, but since that doesn't necessarily come across in the way that we separate species and are harder to study, bugs are likely to be the most speciose for the forseeable future

[@testing2741]

Why are there no Marine (Ocean) Insects? I can't find any* that live in the sea. 😕. *some water-skater species ski on the ocean. Thats it. *Edit: I found one order that contains species that live atop the ocean, yes just one order, of insects that are marine. Why would not more than one insects order not evolve for marine environments when they evolved for all others? "The aquatic insects live mostly in freshwater habitats since there are very few marine insect species. The only true example of such insects are the sea skaters, which belongs to the Hemiptera order."

[@BigLlamaStick]

Is this true? I never thought about this - are there really no Insects in the Ocean?

[@JapaPew]

That can't be true.

[@BigLlamaStick]

@@JapaPew I googled it, I can't find any that live their lives in the ocean. And I mean actual insects, not other arthropods.

[@GrayHatterSociety]

I don't get it. Why aren't there lots of marine insects? If you are right, and there's only that on single order that are marine, I don't get why they would not evolved to fill marine niches. When I think of other families of animals, most have species that have returned to the ocean. And with the massive range if insects variation, why us their a lack of marine species in this most specious group? Why have insects not returned to the ocean, without the one exception? I don't get either. I had never thought about this.

[@testing2741]

@@GrayHatterSociety Thats what I want to know know too!

[@tableslam]

if i had easy access to information like this when i was a kid i would 100% be an entomologist today

[@bubbajenkins123]

Not until the accept the Holy Spiracle as their lord and savior

[@kdaviper]

We worship ba'alzebug

[@theperfectbotsteve4916]

all hail the spiracle

[@razzlebazzle420]

I believe in spiracles

[@chrysolite2842]

@@kdaviper The lord of the *flies*!

[@kdaviper]

@@chrysolite2842 well Lord of the bugs at least. I'm not sure if you know this or not, but ba'al ze bub literally means Lord of flies, and the term was supposedly coined as a slight to the phrase ba'al ze bul which roughly translates into "Lord on high." This was after the yahwist took over ba'alist villages and turned their shrines to ba'al into outhouses.

[@obi-wan-jacobi840]

I’m really enjoying these phylogeny videos. I like that you’re doing more groups beyond reptiles. I’d love to see more on all sorts of groups.

[@Liethen]

The gills of aquatic insect larvae work just like regular gills except in the ways that they don't. The gills are connected to the tracheal system and oxygen diffuses across the membrane into the tracheal system. But the way other insects breath underwater is more interesting, since they hold a bubble in place over their spiracles that acts as a gill.

[@ClintsReptiles]

That answers my question. Thank you!

[@fishainsley]

i need part two, so badly. i am desperate for it. i’ve seen a webspinner before, it was so cool!

[@rawhawgiht]

Great video, it was such a joy to watch. I had a big smile on my face the entire time, your passion and energy is just amazing. Very excited for a second part!

[@lindsay3614]

I've loved insects ever since I was a kid. I would spend hours in our backyard looking under every rock and on every tree and flower to see what I could find. Ants were my favorite. I distinctly remember checking out of the library a 700+ page book on them when I was 12-13. While I still love ants, beetles are my favorite now. Particularly weevils because they're just too cute. I've also grown fond of carpet beetles, seeing as this past winter I decided to take care of a few of them that I found in the house and didn't want to consign to having find somewhere warm to hide out in/around outside.

[@clayalbatross496]

An awesome video as usual! I personally hope Clint does a phylogeny video about the Orthoptera. They have always been one of my favourite insect orders, and it means that the very impressive Weta would be discussed!😃

[@bootlegmegaboss3304]

You talk about insects with so much excitement and vigor. Kudos to you! Hope your channel grows more soon!

[@Bithbd]

What the heck i was just hoping for an inscet pbylogeny from this channel what an absolute treat. Whenever Clint covers the mini beast world its awesome

[@andrewgraves4026]

Clint, the videos are SO good, thanks. This one seemed even easier to follow and keep everything straight - just right!

[@badshibari6707]

I swear I learn something new EVERY video!

[@sweetrumman6496]

Hi Clint, can you do a deeper dive into the physiology of ice-crawlers? How do ectotherms like them survive in cold environments?

[@lonefire333]

I'm super excited for you to dig into these.

[@leandersearle5094]

Clint's Reptiles... And birds... And fish... And mammals... And, well, quite a lot of other things. But we're into that kind of thing.

[@jamesmiller4184]

PHYSICS, ARITHMETICS and MATHEMATICS we are learning of here! Who would have thought that Clint was so conversant with these as well? Ever-surprised, we continue to bee!

[@malcaniscsm5184]

I really enjoyed this guided tour of the insect Families, thank you very much.

[@HS-ENTMLGY]

Amazing video Clint!