Mineral Point tribune. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1854-1858, 1856-03-18
agricultural department.
INSECT POWER.


Dr.. Chalmers, in one of his Astronomical dis
courses, alludes finely TO the microscope, de-
divine wisdom in the lower walks
of creation, as conclusively as the telescope IN
folds II in the wonders Of the heavens. The
laminaa OF 4 microscopic Insect proclaim the ex-
istence of an all wise and omnipotent Creator.
The following extract from the Excelsior, an
English journal gives an insight into some CT
the mapvels Of the insect world
The muscular strength of insects is i'm
mense We once was surprised by feat per
formed by a common beetle, in the United
States We had put the insect, for want of any
box at hand, beneath quart bottle ful of milk
upon table, tie hollow at the bottom allowing
him room TO stand upright Presently, to our
surprise, tie bottle began slowly to move and
glide along rhe smooth table, propelled by the
muscular power of the imprisoned insect, and
continued for some til.se TO perambulate the sur
face, 10 the asionlshment of all who Witnessed
il. The weight of the bottle and its contents
could not have been less than three pounds and
u-half; while that of the beetle was about hall
an ounce, so that it readily moved weight
liz times exceeding its own. \ better notion
than figures can convey, Will be obtained ofthis
feat by supposing lad Of fifteen to be inpris-
oned under the great bell of ST. Paurs which
weighs $4,000 pounds, and to move it TO and fro
upon smooth pavement by pushing within.
Mr. Newport has given other instances of IN
sect power equally remarkable. Having once
fastened a small kind of Carabus, an elegantly
formed ground beetle, weighing three and a-half
grains, by silk thread. to piece of paper, he
laid weight on the latter. At distance of
ten inches from It's load, the insect was able
TO drag after it. upon an inclined plain of twenty
five degrees, nearly eighty-five grains but
when placed on plane of FIVE degrees inclina-
ton it drew afterit one pound and twenty five
grains, exclusive of the fraction TO be overcome
N moving its load, as though man were to
drag up a hill Of similar inclination a Wagon
weighing two tons and half, having first Ia
ken the wheels of.
According TO the same excellent authority,
the stag bcetle-Lucauus cervus-has been
known 10 gnaw mole an inch in diameter
through the side Ct an iron canister in which It
was confined, and Oh which the marks of its
jaws were distinctly visible, as proved by Mr.
Stephens, who exhibited the canister at one of
the meetings of the chronological Society.
Let rs look 1t the powers of insects exer-
cised in the act of flying. The house flies
Observation-Disclosures wheel and rlav beneath
the ceiling for hours together ordinarily move
at the rate ofabout five feet per second but if
excited TO speed, they can dart along THROUGH
thirty live feet in the same brief space of time
Now in this period as Kirby and Spence OBJ
serve, a race-horse could clear only ninety
feft, which IS q the rate Of more than 4 mile
II minute" Our little fy, in ber swit,est
flight, will 90 more than one-third of a mile
Now compare the immense difference of the
eize OF the TWO antInals-ten millions of tie fiv
would hardly coUnterpose one racer-and how
wonderful viii the velocity of this minute caea-
ture appear! Did the fly equal the r.ce-bcrse
II size, and retain lis powers in the ro+io of;.s
magnitude, It would traverse the globe with the
FaPioIty Of hEk'ning. Some of tie flies that
haunt our garGens shoot along so rapidly tina,
the eve cannot follow them in fight.
Nor are these tiny creatures less masters Of the
arts OF running and leapirg. DeIisIe mentions
ny so small as almost to be invisible, which
ran nearly SIX inches in a second, and in that
space was calculated to have made one thousand
and eighty STEPS This, according TO the cal
'uiatlon OF Kirby and Spence, is as il man
whose steps measured only two feet. should run
at the incredible rate of twenty miles in
minute.
Every one has had occasion to observe not
arrays without an emotion of anger, the leaping
powers of the fea--Pulex irrifaps. A bopnd
OF two hundred times It's own length is conf
men fea' as II man could jump twelve bund-
req iee' or quarter Of mile What a pity
'naI insects We're not allowed 10 be competitors
II be athletic games of oIdr'