…what are some arthropods with large (adult lifespan)/(size) ratios…
japanese giant spider crab, largest known living arthropod, capable of living to 100 years old
If we’re talking about the ratio of adult lifespan to size, we want an arthropod that is both small and long-lived. Sadly, “arthropod” excludes Ming (clam) who was lived to be 500 years old, while only being a few cm long, on account of clams being mollusks instead of arthropods. The well known tardigrade is apparently a member of the Tardigrada phylum, and Lobsters, while they are arthropods, actually get pretty big.
If we care about the ratio, though, instead of increasing the numerator, let’s decrease the denominator. A Termite Queen is an arthropod that can live for 30+ years in the right conditions, and is only 10cm long at most. The typical comparison is to the Lobster, which gets to be around 60 cm long while living for 140 years at our highest measurement (in the case of George the Lobster).
So Lobsters pull off 2.3 years per centimeter, whereas Termite Queens get a laudable 3+ years per centimeter. If you use mass instead of length as your size-measure, the Termite Queens are even further ahead, since the former scales as a cube with length.
More Termite Queen fun facts:
The queen only lays 10–20 eggs in the very early stages of the colony, but lays as many as 1,000 a day when the colony is several years old.[53] At maturity, a primary queen has a great capacity to lay eggs. In some species, the mature queen has a greatly distended abdomen and may produce 40,000 eggs a day.[72] The two mature ovaries may have some 2,000 ovarioles each.[73] The abdomen increases the queen’s body length to several times more than before mating and reduces her ability to move freely; attendant workers provide assistance.
Some queens have the ability to switch from sexual reproduction to asexual reproduction. Studies show that while termite queens mate with the king to produce colony workers, the queens reproduce their replacements (neotenic queens) parthenogenetically.[77][78]
So, in terms of maximizing lifespan per size, I think Termite Queens are the winner!
thank u 4 these termite facts
i haven’t found any solid info on Tantulacus dieteri but ten days’ll be enough to compete w/ big queenie (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tantulocarida)
i was hoping for https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megaphragma_mymaripenne but they’re a measly 0.675 years / cm
