I hope this question will not "bee" too hard for you

[JonnyBoy12]

Everyone knows that a normal honeybee weighs about 90 milligrams, and the queen bee weighs about 150 milligrams. How large would a queen bee have to be to weigh 150 kilograms, which is more than I am. How much did the giant insects weigh in the film "Starship Troopers"?

Yes, I know this is a long shot, but have been thinking about this for some time now.

Thanks in advance for any replies.

[jackthehat]

It'd be one big Pet, that's for certain.....

[classylady60]

Elephant size?

[wildwood]

It is only a guess ofcourse, but I would say the size of a large pony.

Physically, it is impossible for a flying insect to grow that large because the flying mechanism is unlike a birds/bats. Insects have no internal skeleton and rely on holding their body construction in shape by a hardened outside (exoskeleton). To fly, they need to vibrate that and the wing movement is activated via a block and tackle arrangement. This restricts the size a flying insect can become.

[Cowtipper]

I always thought it was rude to ask honeybees about their weight. As far as I know design limitations would prevent any insect from growing that large because of the oxygen limitations in our environment. A three hundred pound bee would be around 15 m squared, I think, based on a guesstimate from size to weight ratio.

The giant insects from Starship Troopers aren't really insects so they can grow as large as they want. Considering the amount of mass and energy it takes to do some of the things they do each one would have a different size/weight ratio. The energy requirements would be entirely different from a warrior bug and a plasma bug. A recon bug has an entirely different design and would have limitations of energy vs. allowable weight just like all aircraft. If you consider a plasma bug is around 600 square meters if it were just water the bug would weigh about 158,400 lbs. so right about the size of a very large whale or a Boeing 737.

Of course, this is just guess work.

[DTCwordfan]

Too much time on JB's hands - unless he is shooting a follow up to "The Deadly Bees," a horror from 1966

[carmalee]

and the answer is pertinent because?....... You have a large queen bee?

[Jonathan-Joe]

The larger bee would be a million times bigger than the smaller because 150 kg / 150 mg = 1,000,000.

So, for the same shape body, it would be 100 times longer, 100 times wider and 100 times taller (because 100 x 100 x 100 = 1,000,000)

[JonnyBoy12]

Thanks for your speedy answers, folks, and I knew that this would "bee" a hard question for you. Yes, of course, it is rude to ask a bee her weight, in the same way that you are supposed to tell the bees all your news. That is why I came to ask you this question, and yes, it would be a million times bigger than a normal one.

Maybe I should "beehive" myself, and stop asking obscure questions?

[woofgang]

Its not just the environmental oxygen that would be a problem its the way they breathe.
http://wiki.answers.c...oes_it_use_to_breathe
This system only works on small entities.