THE MUSCULAR STRENGTH OF INSECTS.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3149, 1 August 1881, Page 4

THE MUSCULAR STRENGTH OF INSECTS.

The muscular power of insects has often been noticed, and curious calculations may easily be made by comparing the leap of a flea to its stature, and supposing that a man could make n. proportionate bound. Given one tenth of an inch as the height of a flea, and 6m as that of his jump, he would clear an obstacle sixty times as tall as himself. At this rate, a man 6ffc high would be able to jump over the great pyramid. Dr. Theobald, of Maryland, finds that a beetle weighing two grains is able to move a weight of s_oz, or 1,320 times its own weight. A man weighing 1501b if proportionately strong, could thus move 198,0001b, or nearly 100 tons. Some years ago I captured a very handsome beetle, and placed it under a beaker on a shelf of my laboratory. A few hours after the beetle had disappeared very mysteriously, the beaker remaining inverted. He was recaptured and again placed under the beaker (which, I should perhaps explain, is a thin tumbler used in chemical analysis). I watched the result, and presently found that the beetle walked fche tumbler along fche shelf till ifc reached the edge, then crept out and fell as soon as fche overhang was sufficient to afforfc room for escape.—W. Mattieu Williams, in the Gentleman's Magazine.