STRENGTH OF INSECTS.

Colonist, Volume LIV, Issue 13507, 29 August 1912, Page 6

STRENGTH OF INSECTS.

If asked to name tho strongest nniinal, most persons begin with tho largest, tho ' elephant, and contiimo with oxen, horses, etc. This is, of course, correct in po far as their total horse-power is v "iic-crnad j but i:'or real strength, proportioned to the size and weight of .the animal, one must go to tho .insect world. Compared- with insects, tho strength of almost any largo animal, and especially of man. is absurd. A man is considered strong if ho can drag a mass weighing throe or four times as much as-himself, but tho beetle will walk withf SQQ times his own weight. If a man wore placed under o, wooden box with flvo times his weight on.top to hold it down, ho would remain there- indefinitely; but, says tho "AnimSls' Friend," to retain a stag beotlo prisoner in tho same way, oho must pile on top. of the box at least 1800 times its w.eight.