I mean have you seen a tick or a mosquito well fed? Those fuckers can grow a belly.
I should have clarified Might have been unconsciously thinking about exoskeleton-havers
Insects probably can’t get fat.
There is some flexibility between segments in the abdomen to allow for some stretching but not enough for significant expansion. Bedbugs for example hardly change size after feeding.
But if we expand the definition of “bug” a bit and include arachnids, then things look different. These have very flexible abdomens than can expand significantly. Prime example would be ticks, which get really, really “fat” after feeding.
You most definitely can overfeed scorpions and tarantulas. I once had a rose hair that I bought off someone who didn’t have time for it anymore and the little girl was so “fat” that I had to put her in a low top cage to keep her from climbing for a few months until she slimmed down. She would have ruptured if she fell from a height of a foot or more.
You just gotta look at honeypot ants. Those babies can s t r e t c h.
edit: they are actually converting their food. I thought they were literally stealing honey… whoops
I don’t think their exoskeletons allow for that, I think they just grow in size as opposed to getting disproportionate weight gain like a big belly
They don’t get fat, they just get longer or larger overall.
Once most cocoon species hatch into their respective moth, the moth is unable to eat by its own design, slowly dying of starvation over a few weeks, which is why the moths in your bedrooms just get smaller and smaller until they seem to vanish. Poor little guys :(
Now apply that in reverse. An insect that eats is just going to look like a bigger insect. Same goes for when they’re pregnant. If insects got fat, leaving a mound of sugar outside for them to eat would lead to fat ones, but instead they just eat themselves to death.
They don’t get fat…they get EATEN!!! Tasty delicious air snacks. Butterflies are called butterflies because they taste like butter and make ME fat.
