The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1877-08-08
Strength of InscctN

Should any of our readers be skeptical
upon this point perhaps the following
illustrations of superintendent strength
with which the comnlonest insects are
endowed, selected from curious sources,
may prepare lis to credit more easily the
facte which we shall have to record. The
common flea, as every one knows, will,
without much apparent effort, Jump two
hundred times its own length,and several
g%rasshoppers and locusts ore said to be
able to perform leaps 1nite as wonderful.
In the case Of the insect they scarcely
excite our notice; but if q man were to
coolly take a standing leap of three hun.
bred and eighty odd yards, which would
be an equivalent eXerticn of muscular
power, perhaps u admirers Of athletic
sports might be rather startled at such n
performance. Again, for a man to run
ten miles within the hour would be adj
mitted to be a tolerably good display Of
pedestrianisn1; but what are we to say
to the little fly observed by Mr.. Delisle,
so minute as to be almost invisible"
which ran nearly six inches in second, and
in that space was calculated to have made
one Thousand and eighty steps? This,
according to calculation, is as If Il tnan
whose steps measured Only two feet,
should run at the Incredible rate of
twenty niles in a minute. Equally r
rrising are the instances of insect
strength given by Mr.. Newport. The
great stagbeetle, which tears off the bark
from the roots and the branches of trees,
has been known to gnaw q hole, All inch
in diameter, through the side of n canip-
ter in which, it was confined, md on which
the marks of its jaws were distinctly visi-
bic, as proved by MI. Stephens, who
exhibited the canister at one of the meet
ings of the chronological Society. The
common beetle can, without injury. sup
port and even raise very great weights,
and make it's way beneath almost any
amount of pressure. In order to put the
strength of this insect-Atlas to the test,
experiments have been made which
prove that it is able to sustain and escape
from beneath a load of from twenty to
thirty ounces, a p%rodigious burden, when
it is remembered that the insect itself
does not weigh as many grains; in fact,
once more taking man as a standard of
comparison, it is III though a person of
ordinary size could raise and get from
under a weight of between forty aud fifty
tons. This amount of strength has not,
however, confined to the short, thick
Gmbed beetles. Mr.. Newport one fast
ened n small carabus-one of the most
active and elegantly formed of the beetle
trihe-which weighed only three grains
and n half, by means Of a silk thread, to
a small piece of paper, upon which the
weight to be moved was placed. At n
distance of ten inches from its load the
insect was able to draw after it, up IN in
clined plane Of twenty-five degrees, very
nearly e~ighty-five grains but when
placed upon a plane of five degrees in
clination, it drew after it IL hundred
and twenty-five grains exclusive of the
friction to be overcome in moving it's
load-as though a man was to drag up a
hill of similar inclination, 4 wagon
weighing two tons and a half, having
first taken off the wheels.