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Name: Sara
Status: student
Age: 11
Location: N/A
Country: N/A
Date: 2002066
Question:
I am studying on Locusts, and I was wondering if Locusts have lungs? It may seem like a weird question but the weirder the better!

Replies:
Sara,

Locusts are grasshoppers for the most part and they breathe through openings that line the sides of the abdomen. If you hold a grasshopper, you can often see its abdomen compressing in and expanding out. This movement even suggests breathing. The openings are the beginning of tubes that run throughout the body cavity to provide oxygen and remove carbon dioxide. Actually the blood of the locust just moves freely around the body for the most part and oxygen / carbon dioxide diffusion is not as efficient as the closed circulatory system of the bigger animals like ourselves.

I hope this helps.

Steve Sample

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