Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1856-07-02
Insect Power


We once were surprised by q feat performed by
a common beetle in the United States. We had
put the insect, for want of any box at hand, be-
meath quart bottle full of milk upon table, the
hollow at the bottom allowing him room to
stand upright Presently, to our surprise, the
bottle began slowly to move and glide along the
smooth table, propelled by the muscular power
of the imprisoned insect, and continued for some
time to perambulate the surface to the astonisll-
ment of all who witnessed it. The weight OF
the bottle and its contents could not have been
less than three pounds and half; while that
of the beetle was about halt an ounce, so that
it readily moved weight 81 1-2 times exceed
ing its own. A better notion than figures can
convey will be obtained of this feat by supposing
2 lad of fifteen to be imprisoned under tile great
bell of st. Paul's, which weighs $4,000 pounds,
and to move it to and fro upon smooth pave
ment by pushing within. Mr.. Newport has CIV
Ell other instances of insect power equally re-
mArkable Having once fastened q small kind
of Cdr0bus, an elegantly formed ground beetle,
weighing three and half grains, by silk thread,
to piece of paper, he laid a weight on the latter.
At distance of ten inches from its load, the in
sect was abe to drag after it, upon an inclined
plane of twenty-five degrees, nearly eighty-five
grains; but wien placed on plane of five de-
grees inclination, it drew after it one pound and
twenty-five grains, exclusive of the friction to be
overcome in moving its load, as though man
were to drag up hill of similar inclination q
wagon weighing two tons and half, having
first taken the wheels off. According to the
same, excellent authority, the stag beetle-Lu-
canus serous-has been known to gnaw hole
an inch in diameter through the side OF an iron
canister in which it was confined, and on which
the marks of its jaws were distinctly visible as
proved by Mr.. Stephens, who exhibited the can
lister at one of the meetings the chronological
Society.
Let us look at the powers of insects exercised
in the act of flying. The house ilies-Musca do
mestica-that wheel and play beneath the cell
ing for hours together, ordinarily move at the
rate of about five feet per second but if excited
to speed, they can dart along through thirty-fve
feet in the same brief space of time. Now in
this period,as Kirby and Spence observes, "a race
horse could clear only ninety feet, which is at
the rate of more than a mile in a minute Our
little fly in her swiftest fight will 60 more than
ne-third of Il mile. Now compare the immense
difference Of the size of the two aniinals-ten
millions of the fly would hardly counterpoiseo
racer-and how wonderful will the velocity OF
this minute creature appear Did the fly equal
the race horse in size and retain its powers III
the ratio of its magnitude, it would traverse the
globe with the rapidty of lightning Some Of
the flies that haunt our gardens shoot along SC
rapidly that the eye cannot follow them in
! flight
Nor are these tiny creatures less masters Of
the arts of running and leapng De Lisle men
tions a fly so minute as almost to be invisible
which ran nearly six inches in a second and ir
that space was calculated to have made one
thousand and eighty steps! This, according tt
the calculation of Kirby and Spence, is as if {
man whose steps measured only two feet, should
run at the incredible rate of twenty miles in q
minute. Every one has had occasion to observe
not always without an emotion of anger, the
leapng powers of the fea-PuHr irritans. A
bound of two hundred times its own length is {
common feat, as if man should jump twelve
hundred feet or quarter of mile! What {
! pity that insects were not allowed to be compel
itors in the athletic games of old.