Quick-Footed Insects.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXV, Issue 4, 24 January 1907, Page 35

Quick-Footed Insects.

Did you ever - 4 watch a - fly walking up and down a window pane, or an ant running along the ground," and try to count the steps it - takes ? An interested observer once did this and found that, fn a space of " three inches, a little fly" made 440 steps ■in one-half a second of time. To equals this in proportion to his . size, a man would "have "to run at ,the rate of twenty miles a minute. The common flee leaps 200 • times its own length. To 'show like agility, a man six feet tall would have to leap a distance rof 1200 ■ • i «. oheese " mile 1S about one-quarter of an inch in length, yet- it has been seen to take the tip of its ,'- tail in its mouth, and' then, letting go with a jerk, to leap out of a vessel six inches in depthT To equal, this a man would have; to jump out of. a well from a depth of 144 feet,- A sea urchin, or a starfish, is able to get away from a spot quite nimbly, and the serpent stars, the most active members ' of the whole, omer are capable of using their long, . slender, . many jointed arms as legs, and are as quick and alert as"" crabs.