昆虫很容易被淹死，这个大家都知道。那昆虫能不能被掐死呢？读了下面这篇文章你就会知道了。

Insects breathe in a way that is very different from us. Instead of having a central place to gather oxygen and a transport system to deliver the oxygen to all of the cells of the body like us, insects have a system of fine branching tubes called a tracheal system that delivers the oxygen directly to each cell in the body.

When breathed in an insect, an oxygen molecule¹ in the atmosphere enters a tiny hole on the insect's thorax or abdomen² called aspiracle. The spiracle is the opening of a long tube called tracheae. Then the oxygen molecule proceeds down the tracheae, which is a long, air-filled, branching tube. It continues to move through branches until  reach a tiny, fluid-filled, dead end calledtracheole, and dissolve in the fluid. From the fluid, it diffuses⁴ or moves across the wall of the tracheole into an insect cell such as a muscle cell.

The movement of air through thetracheal systemof most insects relies solely⁵ ondiffusion. Because most insects rely on diffusion⁶, which occurs best over small distances, they cannot get very large. You will not see huge ants, like in the movie "Them," because enough air could not diffuse³ that far into their bodies to keep their cells alive. However, some larger insects can use theirabdominalmuscles to force air in and out of the tracheal system in a limited way.

So, with this system in mind, it would be difficult tostranglea bug⁷. However, if the tracheal system fills with water, it takes much longer for air to diffuse through the system. Therefore, an insect can drown fairly easily.

spiracle: 通气孔

tracheole: [昆]微气管

tracheal system: 气管系统

diffusion: 扩散

abdominal: 腹部的

strangle: 扼死