STRENGTH IN TINY BODIES

Evening Star, Issue 18045, 12 August 1922, Page 14

STRENGTH IN TINY BODIES

Probably the most wonderful feature of a mosquito is its muscularity, writes L. h. Eubanks in ‘ Our Dumb Animals.’ This may seem a ludicrous statement, but a great surprise awaits anyone who for the first timo examines ono of these insects under a glass. Size for size, a mosquito’s wing muscles are equal to an eagle's. Even on a calm day a mosquito can lly ’ forty or fifty miles without a halt; and wi'ii a helping wind three times this distance! The ordinary house fly, too, has astonishing wing strength; tests have shown that when it desires really to hurry it can “dash” 160 ft in a second—llo miles an hour straight-away. A Belgian scientist found that a bee, weight for weight, was thirty times as strong as a horse. It has been.'found that an ordinary house fly can lift a match stick, and that in doing so it exerts as much power in proportion to its size as a man uses when he holds aloft on his feet a beam 14it long by 30in square. Even a very ■small .bug can drag six matches —the equivalent to a man’s pulling 350 beams as large as himself. Spiders sometimes exhibit wonderful strength, especially in conflict. There is a spider in Java that is the dread of all other insects; and it makes a web that can hardly be cut with a knife! With spiders, size is not always a measure of strength; but this fellow has both bulk and power. Ono writer states that an ordinary ant can cany ten times its own weight. Personally I have seen them do far more than this.