The Unsolved Mystery Of The Missing Insects

[@thomasneal9291]

water skaters use surface tension of water to hold them up, not water pressure.

[@EntoExplorer]

Yup. I noticed I said that in editing and was like whatever. They will figure it out. Pinned for clarity

[@rizkyadiyanto7922]

​@@EntoExplorerbro you just cant do that.

[@BillyAu]

​@@rizkyadiyanto7922 You could add some text on the screen at that point with the correction. Much easier than having to redo the narration.

[@zrakonthekrakon494]

Oh but clearly he can >:) doesn’t mean he can do it and have a successful channel though lol

[@stinkmymeat]

@@zrakonthekrakon494Do you people ever listen to the way you speak about random internet strangers and wonder how or when you became so flippant, abrasive, and unpleasant to be around? Wondering.

[@gvasilyev84]

The answer is surprisingly simple - they are afraid they'll evolve into crabs, just like every arthropod out there

[@PeteOfDarkness]

Craaaaab Insects, Craaaaab Insects. Walks like Insect, tastes like Crab.

[@timexyemerald6290]

*Crabs* 🦀🦀: You could not live with your own failures. where did that bring you? Back to me.🦀🦀 (but seriously. insects first came to land because they could not compete in waters, too much arthropods in the sea and needed to rapidly evolve into relatively empty land to survive. little did they knew. Eventually land is full of insects and some of the insects who could not compete with more successful insects ended up going right back into the waters.) Thanos meme is just PERFECT for this situation😅😅

[@hyneksmid3293]

Why are they afraid of became supreme sea arthopod?

[@gvasilyev84]

@ loss of identity and familial pride, i believe

[@GogiRegion]

@@hyneksmid3293 They will lose their uniqueness! Imagine if a bee and an ant both looked like a crab?

[@B_Machine]

Imagine giant ocean floor ants patrolling looking for fallen fish and such.

[@HunterChristian-o7o]

Please for the love of God and all that is good in this world DO NOT tell the ants about the ocean floor!!!

[@rizkyadiyanto7922]

with luminescent eyes...

[@Forevermore93]

Fish n squid will kill all the ants so fast

[@atlf3357]

@@Forevermore93 agreed. Sea floor ants are not the problem, the problem is massive swarms of swimming biting/stinging ants

[@frankenstein6677]

That niche is already taken, that's the issue. Isopods do that in the ocean, as they do on land.

[@dinodonut5776]

It’s also always struck me as odd that Cephalopods have also never evolved to live in freshwater environments, despite being incredibly successful and diverse for nearly the entire history of complex life.

[@patricialee76]

You beat me to it. Of course the answer is obvious... just as we displaced Neanderthals, Cthulhu displaced the freshwater squid. Seriously, why didn't the cephalopods go on to develop spaceflight 200 million years ago? They've had plenty of time.

[@patricialee76]

I mean, yeah they have hemocyanin which is inferior... but that really shouldn't have mattered. Back when they started out the atmosphere was thicker anyway.

[@malleableconcrete]

I've heard that there's some major issue with Cephalopods adapting to freshwater because of the differences in osmosis between that and salt water, and the same applies to some other oddly absent animals like Echinoderms. Crustaceans, Fish, Gastropods, Bivalves and other such things have much less issue with this.

[@chuckgoecke]

@@malleableconcrete They have an "open" circulatory system, and all those which could adapt to fresh water and land have a closed or closable system, like clams. I think it might be something like with calcium metabolism and storage. The fish, prior to boney fish, weren't able to adapt to fresh water. There are few fresh water tolerant sharks and rays, mostly a rather recent adaption. I recall it was the bones themselves, as a reservoir of metabolic calcium, that allowed fish to adapt to fresh water. The problem is that calcium, as a critically important cellular signaling ion, can't fluctuate in the blood and bodily fluids. Boney fish had that reserve for when the environmental calcium levels fluctuated like after heavy rain.

[@Kruegernator123]

@@chuckgoeckeThere lots of freshwater cartilaginous fish that dominated the Paleozoic Era and up to the early Cretaceous Period.

[@Feradose]

The insects can't really thrive underwater because in contrast to the sluggish terrestrial ant eater, the yet-to-be-discovered marine ant eater is a real threat.

[@sqlexp]

I think all small-to-median sized fish are ant eaters 😂 Insect eggs need some safe place above water to hatch without being eaten by marine ant eaters. Breathing under water with bubbles stuck to their bodies make them bad swimmers and unable to dive deep, and there isn't a selection of food source that comes to them.

[@bartoszkowalski6986]

Kinda glad they've failed to properly establish themselves in the ocean. Imagine mosquitoes which come from the ocean 💀

[@EntoExplorer]

Or mosquitoes that attack you from underneath while you swim! I've changed my mind, we need to make this a thing

[@HaughtyToast]

Mosquitoes are actually the best candidate for this because they have a larval stage that filter feeds which means they've passed the hurdle of being adapted to water temperature, having gills, and having a reliable feeding method that also happens to promote evolutionary growth. They also have some good fresh water to salt water locations they breed in like the Florida bayou. The problem is that they would need to mutate to not only *not* metamorphize to a midge but also still grow a reproductive system in spite of that which is a big ask.

[@CMZneu]

@@HaughtyToast Actually for mosquitoes that's not the biggest problem, go to any large open body of water like a lake, you won't find any mosquitoes where the water isn't at least partially stagnant because of fish and stuff, they may be in the reeds and certainly in puddles around the shore but you aren't going to find them in open water.

[@Thom4ES]

​@@CMZneuno ,really ? ,wow

[@HaughtyToast]

@ I'm guessing that it has to do with their size and lack of mobility. Evolutionarily, those are easier things to overcome than the metamorphosis problem. I wouldn't call it the biggest problem if they already dealt with the other stuff. If it's a question of where they happen to lay their eggs then they could transition to sticking them on a number of things especially since the currents would probably bring them to garbage and kelp beds.

[@dstinnettmusic]

Insects are just land crustaceans though. So….that answers the question in and of itself. Crustaceans are already adapted to whatever niche that they could get into.

[@Ryodraco]

Then what about rivers, lakes and ponds?

[@Stothehighest]

​@@Ryodraco Read the comment again. Insects are land crustaceans. Since it would be a little hard for a lobster to find it's way to an emphemeral pool. It's an open environment and insects can colonize with a partial water form (nymph). As far as streams and larger freshwater bodies. Those do have crayfish, crabs and shellfish. I don't recall a lot of overlap in freshwater crabs and caddisfly larvae, because they would be in the same area and the larvae withing the crab's reach. The only "safe" place for an aquatic insect in a freshwater body with other crustaceans in it would be the water column.... Where the fish are... Whoops. Insects never really had a chance to break into the freshwater niches as fully aquatic creatures. It's like asking rodents are everywhere, why don't they fly too? Because bats and birds got there first, so rodents wouldn't be able to get through the rough transition stages to make their own niche.

[@Carlos-bz5oo]

@@Stothehighest In regards to why rodents don't fly, a study found that the Eocene's higher oxygen concentration helped bats get airbourne. So hypothetically rodents could develop flight if such conditions were repeated.

[@ianallen738]

insects are not crustaceans. insects and crustaceans are separate branches of arthropods. you might as well say that people are just land dolphins, since we are both mammals.

[@Carlos-bz5oo]

@ Not quite. Insects are most closely related to brine shrimp, making Crustacea a paraphyletic group. So insects are curstaceans, much like we are fish

[@astronieznajomy678]

Osmoregulation? Given the lack of mechanisms that would keep their hemolymph at a normal salinity, maybe it is the reason of their inherent inability to live in a salty environment?

[@Zxr-r6q]

*THAT'S WHAT I'M SAYIN-*

[@EntoExplorer]

What's crazy is that there are insects which have evolved to live in far saltier environments than the ocean, although I think it is part of it. The truth is probably complicated

[@whome9842]

@@EntoExplorer That brine fly comes to mind. The tar fly is another insect adapted to even more extreme conditions.

[@skiniver5307]

​@EntoExplorer its probably a mix of a lot of different factors and for all those "problems" to be solved, it would take quite a while of no benefit before its enough to make them fit for sea life. Natural selection is a very short term benefit process

[@B_Machine]

​@@whome9842ok, now I need to research these bugs.

[@MannyReign]

So now we ask the famous meme question: Is shrimp bugs?

[@kunknown2340]

You're a bug.

[@jackalope07]

No bugs is almost shrimp (brine shrimp are more closely related to bugs than they are to jumbo shrimp)

[@GermanSausagesAreTheWurst]

@@kunknown2340 No, I'm a fish.

[@jellybro4133]

no

[@insectilluminatigetshrekt5574]

Depends on what you mean by 'bugs'

[@nefelpitou]

I think part of it is probably just that winged insects' suite of adaptions which make them so successful and so diverse are just less relevent in an oceanic context. The number one factor that sets insects apart from other land inverts; the wings themselves, aren't really useful for a fully marine insect.

[@kevinpeters6709]

Now I’m imagining a beetle with vestigial legs and wings modified for “flying” through water (though the front pair of legs probably become graspers)

[@CosimoCostanziadiCostigliole]

@@kevinpeters6709 Well there are several, very successful families of aquatic beetles (e.g. Dytiscidae, Hydrophilidae...), but they live in fresh water only for some reason. None of them use their wings under water though, they either use modified swimming legs to get around, or grasp on plants and other surfaces.

[@nefelpitou]

@@kevinpeters6709 wings are pretty unlikely to be modified into flippers, using one of the pairs of legs (as several living groups of freshwater beetles do) is more likely. I think part of the reason freshwater beetles are successful is because they can fly to new habitats that are otherwise unoccupied, a small stream or temporary pond or puddle can quickly be occupied by a flying insect before any other animal reaches it ( even branchiopods have to wait for their eggs to hatch and develop). The ability to spread to new habitats though is something that basically every marine invertebrate with pelagic larva has, and flying insects are if anything more constrained than fully aquatic animals because flight over long distances of the ocean poses a lot more difficulty than just swimming. Without wings insects have very few advantages over other crustaceans, and those that remain mostly are relevant in the context of terrestrial environments, for instance even flightless insects are better at handling dry environments than terrestrial isopods, and are better at handling cold environments than terrestrial crabs, but neither of these are advantages in the ocean where "being better at handling dryness" is useless and crustaceans have no problem living underneath ice shelfs.

[@Kruegernator123]

That is true. Most insects that live in freshwater typically do so in their larval stage.

[@bjorntheviking6039]

@kevinpeters6709 That just sounds like Henslow's Crab, except they use a pair of legs instead of wings.

[@danwylie-sears1134]

Before watching, my guess is that the ocean is too connected in terms of organisms already there moving around, and not correlated enough in terms of vulnerability to mass extinctions. When one set of crustaceans *(or other organisms in niches insects might move into) goes extinct, there's another set ready to move into the niches they occupied, and has an advantage over the insects. Any mass extinction big enough to wipe out all the crustaceans would also have wiped out the insects. Now to watch ... . *Edited to add 'or other', etc. It's obvious once it's pointed out, but before watching I was thinking specifically of crustaceans.

[@rattyoman]

I thought of this too ahah, I think it's at least a factor imo, since speciating takes time and other groups could just get there first too

[@claytoncoffman2951]

This is the opinion of most of the entomologists I know. Anything insects could do in the ocean are already being done by crustaceans. They are “ecologically equivalent “.

[@Ryodraco]

Though as he mentioned, there is a large diversity of freshwater crustaceans, and they haven't stopped there being a huge variety of freshwater insects.

[@danwylie-sears1134]

@@Ryodraco There are. But bodies of fresh water aren't connected the way the oceans are. When a body of fresh water gets hit with a local extinction event, freshwater crustaceans sometimes got there before insects could adapt to a freshwater lifestyle, and sometimes they didn't.

[@rattyoman]

@@danwylie-sears1134 Absolutely this, the connectivity of the world's oceans plays a huge part, because there will always be crustaceans nearby to fill oceanic niches, but the same isn't true for freshwater bodies

[@egregius9314]

"They're predatory so they won't bother you too much." Thanks for assuming we're plants :P

[@novedad4468]

I came to understand that he meant they aren't parasitic or micropredatory.

[@Danarogon]

Very good video! I always found it strange why there are no salt water insects. It really feels like something is missing down there.

[@curtismahon9948]

These Halobates guys would occasionally wash up on shore when I worked on Midway Atoll! One of my favorites pelagic critters out there along with Janthina. A major food source for some small seabird species, and doing really well as human trash has artificially given them a lot of nesting space

[@whome9842]

There are seal lice too for insects that live in the ocean, they can survive submerged for long periods of time unlike these but they can't complete their lifecycle entirely in open ocean so they are more or less adapted to sea life depending on who you ask.

[@Fearia6]

That's so cool!

[@presidenttogekiss635]

I just found about this and am genuenely impressed by the survivability of lice lol

[@YunxiaoChu]

@@TheGrungelerread the comment again, idiot

[@josephdillon9698]

How do they get out of the ocean to complete their life cycle?

[@whome9842]

@ Seals breed outside water.

[@TheTb2364]

Something very similar can be seen in tardigrades. Heterotardigrada can be found in both marine and land environments, while eutardigrada can only ever be found in terrestrial and freshwater habitats.

[@NexVoidGaming]

Insects evolved from crustaceans, as you said. To me, that makes all of them "insects" to my loosey goosey terminology.

[@NoobNoob1986]

This is my logic also

[@Bosianartilleryisguidedbygod]

​@NoobNoob1986 forgive me for being a nerd, but it's more that insects are "land crustaceans" Primates aren't "tree people" Still I enjoy considering em all as bugs too lmao

[@NoobNoob1986]

@Bosianartilleryisguidedbygod acceptable

[@GermanSausagesAreTheWurst]

@@Bosianartilleryisguidedbygod I think we should do an experiment. We all know that Dinosaurs tasted like chicken,, so the insects should taste like shrimp. A nice big plate of Cicada larva with butter and lemon; that's good eatin'. I've heard some people say that Tarantulas taste like Lobster.

[@jellybro4133]

In my opinion this is incorrect, assuming your loosey goosey terminology dinosaurs are birds because birds evolved from dinosaurs...see that just doesnt make sense

[@1TakoyakiStore]

The thing is that there are salt springs well inland around the world, and to my knowledge no aquatic insects live within them. This removes the possibility of no available niches to fill being the sole reason why there exists no marine aquatic insects. Also of note is that there exists an insects relative that still lives in the ocean called the Remipedia. Lastly, and I have no hard evidence to support this but, I have a hypothesis. When insects and amphibians evolved to conquer the land the oceans were far less salty than they would be later. They evolved on land, the conditions of the oceans changed, and now they don't have the hardware to go back easily. I've tried looking up a history of oceans salinity over the years but nothing concrete has come up. I just find it hard to believe that insects could conquer Antarctica and yet be unable to evolve the hardware needed for a marine existence.

[@lightfeather9953]

I don't know but I think of inland waters as being extremely short lived. Salt water pools are very few and far between and I'm guessing come and go with erosion, earthquakes, etc. so too little space and time to evolve. is that wrong?

[@insectilluminatigetshrekt5574]

Somewhat related, but there are midges whose larvae live over 1000 meters deep in lake baikal, the words depest lake. So at least some insects have become accustomed to pelagic deep water

[@philtarpehdixon7441]

Pelagic by definition is the surface of a water column. So it cannot be both pelagic and deep.

[@insectilluminatigetshrekt5574]

@philtarpehdixon7441 pelagic means far above the substrate. If something lives purely in the water column not on or near substrate it's pelagic. Bathypelagic is a term you know

[@lightfeather9953]

​@@philtarpehdixon7441in freshwater ecosystem discussions in the US regarding fish, we say pelagic fish when referring to fish that are suspending in deep water. Though I know anglers tend to have all sorts of common language that is scientifically inaccurate. So idk but when I hear pelagic I think suspending in deep water away from the bottom

[@ghostamity5116]

I can’t fathom how a tiny insect can even survive on the surface of the ocean. How are they finding food? Like what could possibly be their food source.

[@sashamercier3337]

One thing I think is interesting to note is that we never, without exception, see the reversion of terrestrial respriatory systems to anything remotely resembling gills. My hunch is that this has something to do with it. The only group that you might call out are isopods, but their respiratory systems are basically gills modified into terrestrial respiration, so can lose those traits to go back to aquatic respiration. I think, with investigation, you would find that since the genes that coded for the development of gills were recoded for the development of complex auditory systems, it is nigh impossible to revert those genetic changes. Terrestrial species might return to the water, but they can't stop relying on their terrestrial respiratory systems, as advanced as they may get for efficient diffusion of oxygen into the bloodstream.

[@Doctoranthetardis]

My hypothesis is that there probably are other ocean insects but we have yet to find them.

[@CatFish107]

Whoa! TIL "plastron". Thank you so much for that information. I had been curious about that effect. I have been attempting to feed aphids to my guppies, and have been frustrated by the way they cling air around them. It is incredibly difficult to drown an insect, or keep them underwater long enough to be eaten!

[@GermanSausagesAreTheWurst]

I think if you sprinkle them on the surface, the guppies will figure out for themselves.

[@biolnews]

Cool! Interesting, knew about Halobates, but learned lots of intriguing details

[@jamesdavison6290]

I love strange questions! You never answered it, but you got me thinking. It's guys like you that push the boundaries of science!

[@rudyhonings]

9:05

[@CMZneu]

Didn't know they had no wings! Also they may be able to skate on the surface but no way in hell a 5mm bug is traveling off its own power any distance that isn't negligible compared to currents and wind so basically they are a drift, imagine how many just die because they drifted somewhere that a tad bit too cold.

[@Katze822228]

My guess would be that after the mass extinctions animals that already lived in the ocean were faster to fill the empty niches than insects. Or maybe insects initially occupied some niches in the ocean after a mass extinction and later got outcompeted by better adapted marine animals kinda like how the Terror birds were initially successful but later got outcompeted by cats and dogs because they were better adapted to fill that niche. New fresh water bodies with no animals form all the time so there are a lot more opportunities for insects to evolve to be semi aquatic and later fully aquatic in those.

[@sashamercier3337]

Which mass extinction are you referring to? Insects have changed very little since the Devonian era when their initial body plans evolved (by the end of the Silurian) and they developed powered flight. While we've seen many different orders evolve since, the basic body plan changed little. It's just been minor differences since, owing to their ecological success.

[@erikgilson1687]

Lol what is that one dude doin 0:30

[@Nanashi448]

Looks like it was trying to get the other one off.

[@PeteOfDarkness]

There is an ancient treaty in place. Insects are Rick, Crabs are Mr. Nimbus.

[@edenschwenk4649]

before watching, im guessing it's because they don't have lungs and their tracheal breathing system requires a lot of air access or doesn't tolerate salt water. dunno why arachnids haven't gone back to the water though

[@fuzzydude64]

"7.8/10 too much water" -bugs

[@helicopsyche]

The osmoregulation argument doesn't hold up for me, lots of marine midges are able to deal with salt pretty easily, and there are even caddisflies in NZ that lay their eggs in starfish. I think the main impediment is that adults are usually winged, and even flightless adults like Pontomyia or Halobates retain a lot of adaptations for terrestrial life that mean they have a lot more evolution to do in order to replace whatever invertebrates are already in a marine environment when a niche opens up. The only adult insects i know of that live in freshwater are hemiptera and coleoptera, both of which have adaptions to breathing that either pull oxygen from the surface air or use some sort of bubble for gas exchange, neither of which would work well in deep or open water. P.S. There are some freshwater gerrids that are morphologically similar to Halobates, just not in the Gerrinae subfamily (e.g. Rheumatobates, Metrobates, Trepobates in North America).

[@frankenstein6677]

I mean the very question is kind of silly. Insects are the crustaceans that adapted to land, basically. So the intriguing part is not that "there are no insects in the ocean", but rather that crustaceans are the most successful group on land.

[@deekybird]

thank you for producing this highly interesting video! it was very informative.

[@Kingramze]

My guess would be that insect spiracles are a major impediment to evolving back into something crustacean-like with gills. For mammals, seals and cetaceans can just close their mouth/nose/blowhole after filling their lungs and they're effectively sealed with their own internal oxygen tank. Insects have holes all over their bodies for respiration and no central storage for air. If the spiracles evolved to close, the cells they feed would rapidly lose oxygen with no storage tank and an inadequate circulatory system to send oxygen to them even if the insect re-evolved gills. Most aquatic insects and spiders have a kind of diving bell bubble of air, but in the open ocean, that'd be hard to maintain. It's an interesting question, and I'm sure the answer lies somewhere between "crustaceans already fill every niche insects would try to occupy" and "insects would have to re-evolve gills and adapt or lose spiracles to adapt to under-water life, and that's asking a lot for a bug to adapt to a niche that's already been filled"

[@LimeyLassen]

Lots of insects have closed spiracles, and breathe through gills.

[@Kingramze]

@@LimeyLassen fascinating! can you give me some examples?

[@Kingramze]

@@LimeyLassen are they adult forms?

[@LimeyLassen]

@@Kingramze I can't think of an adult with gills, no.

[@Kingramze]

@@LimeyLassen I think that's the crux of the problem. It's not impossible, but for an insect to evolve to be aquatic as an adult, it'd be more likely to happen with a species with an aquatic nymph stage that somehow maintains the nymph structures, yet also develops to be sexually mature and reproduce... and as long as evolving out of that aquatic nymph stage and dropping those features is beneficial, it's unlikely. I bet the dragonfly would be a good candidate to evolve into a truly aquatic adult insect - not because it's not beneficial to become an adult, but perhaps if some mutation keeps a large enough brood in an aquatic stage, some will find a way to breed. They're pretty good hunters even in aquatic form and could evolve into some crustacean-like insect over time. Very interesting conversation! Thank you for your input.

[@Sq7Arno]

Maybe, given Sea Skaters, it's just too difficult for any other other insect species to follow suite and occupy that niche in any meaningful way. They do eat eggs after all.

[@starscream548]

Just found this channel and I love it already. As a lover of all things insects and an aspiring entomologist this channel is perfect I look forward to watching all of your videos. Also I have some questions about the field. If you could answer them that would be very helpful

[@jellybro4133]

what a very underrated channel, its crazy because videos like these which are scientifically accurate are outperformed by less-accurate slop that appeals to the uneducated masses, truly this channel is a rare gem

[@kelpc1461]

shrimps is bugs.

[@jim37569]

I love this question! So obvious in retrospect. What is the total biomass available on the surface of the ocean that would be available to insects to consume? I'm surprised there's anything far from the coasts.

[@JENKEM1000]

This is some very interesting content! SUBBED.

[@EdHaigh]

It’s a categorization issue. They’d need gills. If they had proper gills they wouldn’t be considered insects anymore. It’s a if my aunt had wheels she’d be a bicycle kind of thing.

[@theangrysuchomimus5163]

I think the respiratory system of insects make them ill-suited for the ocean. The many tracheoles will make it hard for the insect to fight osmosis because there's so much surface for exchanges and the tracheoles are present through most of the insect's body. What's worse is that water's not as good as air to diffuse oxygen, so the tracheoles could become filled with stagnant deoxygenated water, which would ultimately kill the insect. So, an insect would need some kind of gill to survive in the ocean. But, a lot of niches occupied by insect larvae in fresh water habitats have marine counterparts occupied by other organisms who can do their job just as well. So there's not much incentive for an insect to try to compete for the same niches in the open ocean. I also think insect ontogeny could be an issue, but it's not impossible to break through as seen in fireflies.

[@ReasonablySkeptic]

Sea butterflies sounds magical.

[@--Paws--]

I thought this was talking about any insect on or around any marine environment; this was about those that can live in the water. There are predatory insects that glide on top and fly to hunt other insects though.

[@thefolder3086]

This video introduced me to an absolute gold of a channel. You did amazing work and hope you keep doing it. Also this reminds me of a completely different insect group, who are micro insects living on remote islands, some even considered aeroplankton. Would be interesting to see how they get so small and how they operate.

[@EntoExplorer]

Welcome aboard!

[@jrmikulec]

Many insects families beat competing life forms using their wings, an advantage that is pretty unique to insects. Wings become less useful the more time you spend beneath the surface of water. Maybe diving or living deep degrades the advantage of flight enough? What other advantages do insects have over other arthropods?

[@TheJasonBorn]

You ever see what happens when you salt an insect, is my first thought.

[@yoboijaden4742]

The ocean is more dangerous than land because you’re vulnerable from the top and bottom

[@Alberad08]

Thanks a lot for providing this video! Weird fact: I thought about that only a few days days ago (but never before) and now, just accidentally, noticed your upload, which off course also doesn't provide an answer to the question. 🙂 Best wishes from Dortmund, Germany

[@xenos_n.]

I never knew these guys existed. It's always interesting when an animal goes back to the ocean. I wonder what humans would evolve into if we went back into the ocean.

[@sneezyfido]

Shrimp food

[@reeyees50]

It has to do how insects breath, and how their well adapted they are at extracting oxygen from that air. For them to go back to the sea, it would be to stick on the surface or survive waves at the coast (extremely dangerous). Anything deeper would require insects to do a massive breakthrough evolutionary change where they can once more extract oxygen from water.

[@Ryodraco]

But there are insects that can breathe underwater assuming I understand right. Namely the nymphs of damselflies, dragonflies and mayflies. Of course, their adult stage is not aquatic, but it shows the insect body can develop the equivalent of gills.

[@natalieeuley1734]

I think fundamentally, it takes many tiny adaptations that perfectly line up for ocean insects to evolve, as we saw with these water striders. You didn't go into how they lay eggs, which I would be very interested in. Things just have to line up and they haven't more than once so far, but that doesn't mean that they won't ever again

[@richardbidinger2577]

The sea has bugs. Lobsters, shrimp, and others. They just evolved differently.

[@kevanhubbard9673]

We call them Water Skaters .I have seen them in brackish water but they mainly live in ponds.

[@Threetails]

I think it's just a matter of the oceans being so full of other orders of arthropods that insects can't get a foothold.

[@alexcarter8807]

I'm pretty sure crabs and shrimp and those little things that like to bite one's ankles in shallow water and those huge roly-polys that live in very deep water, *are* the insects of the sea.

[@gwugluud]

The ocean insects ran away with the land lobsters.

[@phloopy5630]

My theory is that it’s got something to do with the salt. 1, they’re extremely hydrophobic, and not just for staying above water, but also repelling any which they come in contact with. 2, insects have no problem with low oxygen environments, water environments, cold environments, etc, so why is it that when you add salt to the equation it stops working? It seems to me that something about insect biology fundamentally is incompatible with high salt content.

[@LimeyLassen]

The tricky thing is, there are insects that thrive in _extreme_ salt environments like brine flies in the Great Salt Lake.

[@phloopy5630]

@ woah, didn’t know those lil guys existed! If it’s true that something about salt were to hurt insects, this evidence would severely complicate my crude hypothesis.

[@Fearia6]

Great vid. Very interesting. Now I'm interested in the lifecycle of those ocean gliders.

[@greatnate29]

If I had to guess. It would be that their lack of good gills and osmotic regulation make it impossible for the general population to make the jump into the ocean. So the only ones that can make the transition are the ones already living in saltwater environments. I would imagine that the insects that do happen to live in salt water environments are already highly specialized so anything that would open up a niche for them would likely kill them off too. Like anything that kills off all the crabs is likely to kill off them too. Probably that and that there are already a lot of generalists in the ocean so when a niche does open up they will fill the niche much faster then anything else. Mammals already have some adaptions that could give them an advantage in the ocean like their large size and regulated body temperatures. Bugs are small, dumb, and weak and are simply no match for us mammals. Id like to see them try to take our niches, but they can't because we are better then them.

[@hartoramasenju4012]

I think it's because of niche. All niche in the sea that insect could possibly fill was already filled by either crustacean, worm or echinodermata. It will be interesting though if somehow in few million years insect start to colonize sea like whales

[@herzogsbuick]

"over a million have been discovered and named" laura, georgia, gret, jake, johannes, marilyn, dermott, reece, mcleod, aravan, missy, georgia...wait did i say georgia already? sorry georgia -- henry, phyllis, drake, oleks

[@whtiequillBj]

Is it possible that they are able to move by repelling the salts? Also salt water has better buoyancy than fresh water.

[@georgecataloni4720]

I bet fish eat bugs too easily, so only the surface level bugs can live.

[@SyIe12]

👍⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ EXCELLENT WORK!! THANK YOU FOR YOUR EXPLANATION.

[@cleanerben9636]

Part of me thinks it's because they are too small. By the time Whales were making regular trips into the ocean they were already large predators, compared to any insect. It's hard to get going when as soon as you enter the water you are prey for almost anything else.

[@martinschlegel1823]

At the same time small animals can reproduce faster, can sustain bigger populations on the same territory, can be adaptable due to rapid evolution with short generation cycles... There are many marine animals as small and smaller than insects... I rather think it's a combination of the corresponding "small crustacean" niche being already occupied by well, crustaceans, and the open ocean being effectively a desert. The density of live in the open ocean is quite low and many "ocean" animals even those that can and do cross open ocean, spend most of their lives near shore or near the few "oasis" like reefs, hydrothermal vents, or other "features"... the "why didn't they get back to the open water during massive oceanic exinction events" is the most difficult part.

[@Raziel1984]

today i learnt somthing interesting, that i did not know at all ---> instant banging on the SUB-button!

[@JJLV2495]

They don't weigh enough to sink, unlike their marine ancestors, which live by being able to move along the seabed, which is where they find their food. They can't get bigger than a certain size because they don't have lungs, so I don't see many food sources in the sea, apart from plankton.

[@anotherelvis]

TLDR at 8:12 There are several hypotheses, but perhaps it is difficult to adapt the insect physiology to salt water.

[@rowshambow]

I want a scifi that is set in the future where these have mutated to be huge, and they hunt the survivers (us) who now live on a flooded water world

[@Huy3hb4jehd]

mixels: in our world there is sea insects + they car sized

[@Voodoomaria]

The sea has Zooplankton and Arthropods [Crabs/Lobsters/Shrimp] these all fill the ecological niche's Insects fill on land [not to mention invertebrates such as sea slugs, anemones, and jellyfish]. Insects "Returning' to the ocean would have to compete with established and better adapted life forms already filling their roles in that environment, That's why Insects have only established themselves "On the edges" rather than being fully involved.

[@robinharwood5044]

They looked at the sea and said “Naaah, we like it here.”

[@massmanute]

Not strictly on the topic of oceans, but some species of brine flies (Ephydra) spend their larval stage in highly saline waters like the Great Salt Lake.

[@egregius9314]

Petroleum flies pupate on land, while the larval stage breathes at the surface, and adult brine flies need to return to the surface to breathe (the larvae do it through feeding on algae, so photosynthesis). Here seems to lie the answer to why you can't find them in the deep ocean: I can't think of a single example of an animal that adapted from land to the ocean **and evolved to breathe under water again**. I guess gills are a harder evolutionary step than lungs. And eggs floating on the water are just fish food.

[@EvilWeiRamirez]

I always thought there were sea insects and these are crustaceans. I don't know the difference between the two. I just always thought that it made more sense for them to go into the deep rather than go above. And if they did go above, it made more sense to be places with more places to hide than in the open ocean.

[@starling1269]

Judging by how my aquarium works, the fish would eat them all

[@christosgiannopoulos828]

Why would they live in the ocean ? Not every land creature becomes secondarily aquatic. Besides, we've got crustaceans. Those basically fill the insect role in the sea

[@natezuniga-qd7pe]

Is there a difference in surface tension between salt and fresh water?

[@The1stDukeDroklar]

The way I see it, crustaceans are big "sea-bugs".

[@kanukistani2984]

aren't sea bugs called crustaceans? Crustaceans have gills, but land bugs need air. For some reason, sea bugs are delicious, but land bugs are nasty. I stand by that statement.

[@tikaalik]

There are no pelagic or deep-water freshwater insects either. There are also no freshwater insects that are fully aquatic throughout their life cycle and don’t rely on coming to the surface for air. That means they are tied to the surface, and even the larvae or nymphs are not really deep water. This has to do with limitations on their respiratory systems I believe, that all adults have spiracles and tracheae which are really only suited to breathing air. That’s not the case with crustaceans, where all adults have gills. It looks like this evolutionary adaptation to land was not “reversible”. Water boatmen - must surface for air bubbles Whirligigs - surface Diving beetles - larvae breathe from surface with tube, adults get bubbles from surface Dragonflies - Rectal gills as nymphs, but adults fly and have tracheae Mayflies - Tracheal gills as nymphs, adults fly with trachea Can you think of any exceptions to this? I can’t. Why is this a problem? Are there any marine crustaceans they live under the surface yet rely on air to breathe? I can’t think of any. I am guessing that marine habitats are ill-suited to aquatic insects that must get air from the surface. Whales and seals manage to do this in the open sea because they are large and can manage it among the waves and currents. Sea snakes and marine iguana, sea turtles are all large enough to manage it closer to shore. Insects cannot manage this, nor really can any small arthropods. Nor can they evolve gills that persist into adulthood. Therefore they have never evolved to live in the open or deep ocean, and they never will.

[@elcidgaming]

today I learned that water type deals STAB to insect types

[@hikarustarr]

they're scared of water? sucks for them...

[@CatFish107]

As a largely ignorant, but curious person, I wonder what makes shrimp different from insects. There's land shrimp that live alo gside insects. In my (basic) book, shrimps are ocean bugs. Also, zooplankton, and various other microfauna fill that sort of niche, no?

[@EntoExplorer]

The insects and crustaceans are related (part of a larger group called the Tetraconata/Pancrustacea) and they share many features. Generally though, crustaceans will have more body segments, more legs, more antennae, and gills, and have very different early development.

[@JudgeՏamson]

If wasps evolved to live underwater I wouldn't be caught dead in the ocean. 😂

[@tkc1129]

Very interesting video!

[@HerraHissi]

My guess is insects require air and warmth which makes the suitable habitat only couple of meters deep. Surface is also very turbulent, an insect would be on the mercy of currents. Adapting to these harsh conditions makes an insect a non-insect.

[@andrewsarchus4238]

ill posed question. Insects are crustaceans who left the sea for dry land.

[@PondLab]

Certainly a big mystery. Tempting to think insects are too adapted well to land/freshwater, but who would have thought hoofed mammals would go into the sea and become Whales? Perhaps it is competition from (other) crustaceans combined with some sort of morphological or biochemical barriers as you suggested? Grrst channel, given it a sub :)

[@silpabananaking]

Really? I always thought that crabs, lobsters, and shrimps were the insects of the sea.

[@EntoExplorer]

Does that make land crabs the insects of the land?

[@silpabananaking]

@@EntoExplorer ... you know what? screw it. YES!

[@LordCrate-du8zm]

I hereby dub all water skaters to be named Jared.

[@fishyerik]

The oceans are very special by being a connected system of highly stable environments that have allowed a lot of species to evolve extremely well to those stable conditions, and develop ecosystems without much unused niches. Insects have a lot things going for them when it comes to adapting to changes, but that's not very useful in ecosystems that don't change much. Not that much of a mystery that adaptations to life on land and environmental changes doesn't make insects very good at competing with marine crustaceans. About marine mammals, they actually have some advantages over other marine life, but insects don't have any significant advantages over crustaceans for life in the oceans. It's important to keep in mind that evolution doesn't have a purpose, categories of organisms don't have bucket lists. Also, evolution hasn't reached some end goal and stopped, there are no truly fully aquatic marine insects living in the oceans that we know of, right now, and as far as we can tell from fossil evidence, there hasn't been any. But that in it self doesn't actually prove that there never has been any or that there never will be any. But the fact that the main differences between crustaceans and insects is that crustaceans are much better suited to aquatic life than insects makes it unlikely that many insects will adapt to aquatic life in the oceans very successfully anytime soon.

[@PieterPatrick]

00:31 What is that Water Skeeter doing? Interesting.

[@raditz1101]

My big guess as to why insects dont swarm the oceans is the salinity. In my less knowledgeable opinion it might explain why the Ocean Skaters are so hydrophobic compared to their freshwater relatives, maybe the salt in the water just screws with insect biology in a way we haven't really looked into (again Im just taking a massive swing in the dark here)

[@monsterx3055]

i thought most of the stuff in the sea were insects for the most part

[@joenicotera2991]

Well, since the word insect is defined by man and an an animal that has six legs and wings, maybe there just isn't many applications for legs and wings in the ocean.

[@piccolo1906]

Crabs, lobster and shrimp water insects.

[@REEbott86]

The true mystery is why no land and sky crustaceans? oh wait… that’s what insects are.

[@paulbennett772]

It's probably important to mention that "bug" is a particular kind of creature, not merely the generic term for any insect-like thing which crawls - as is the incorrect American usage.