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Comment by chiefalchemist | Hacker News Reader

What is it about this particular environment that allows this mutation (i.e., larger in size) to survive here, but no where else in the world?

Also, in theory, could it be even larger, or is there some limit to how large a bee could be?

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Insect size tends to be limited by oxygen availabiltiy (since they don't have lungs, and must absorb oxygen passively). Hence why the biggest insects are found in oxygen rich rainforests.

I know insects used to be much bigger when the atmosphere had more oxygen.

But I'm very skeptical that there is more oxygen in rain forests. For one thing, I don't think they actually produce more oxygen than they consume, since there is an equilibrium of plant mass being created and being consumed. Also, the planet is quite windy.

Still, I'm interested in seeing any evidence to the contrary!

Oh, Is the damned planet earth. Is doing this things everywhere since millions of years. Bigger, faster and with more teeth.

There is a limit to how large an insect can be. Couldn't breath effectively with the body mass of a retriever (fortunately).

I remember reading somewhere that sometime in the prehistoric era when earth was more oxygen rich, giant insects were abound.

https://earthsky.org/earth/why-were-prehistoric-insects-so-h...

What vertline3 said. This would appear to be island gigantism. An island is small and not well connected to the rest of the world, so the organisms that do happen to be there often adapt into different niches than their mainland origin species, since whatever would normally fill that niche isn't around.

Maybe related to Island Giganticism, and also Island Dwarfism (foster's rule).

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