DAILY NO. 8 · VERIFIED MEASUREMENTS
The five insects & bugs objects from the Size It Up puzzle on September 8, 2026, with the measured size of each, the reference it was compared against, a source you can check, and how the community's guesses landed. Want the surprise first? Replay this puzzle — archived days never touch your streak.
Answer: a praying mantis measures 10 cm (length / span), which is almost exactly the same size as the reference, a monarch butterfly at 10 cm.
A mantis can turn its head almost all the way round, which few insects manage.
Common miss: players tend to inflate a praying mantis when it sits beside a monarch butterfly — big things get squeezed, small familiar things get stretched.
Answer: a giant stick insect measures 56 cm (length / span), which is 1.2× as big as the reference, a domestic cat at 46 cm.
Record stick insects can exceed half a metre with legs extended.
Common miss: players tend to compress a giant stick insect when it sits beside a domestic cat — big things get squeezed, small familiar things get stretched.
Answer: a giant centipede measures 30 cm (length / span), which is 1.1× as big as the reference, an American football at 28 cm.
Scolopendra gigantea hunts bats in mid-air, plucking them from cave ceilings.
Common miss: players tend to compress a giant centipede when it sits beside an American football — big things get squeezed, small familiar things get stretched.
Answer: a ladybird beetle measures 1 cm (length / span), which is about 1.3× smaller than the reference, a leafcutter ant at 1.3 cm.
One ladybird can eat several thousand aphids in a lifetime.
Common miss: players tend to inflate a ladybird beetle when it sits beside a leafcutter ant — big things get squeezed, small familiar things get stretched.
Answer: a large dragonfly measures 12 cm (length / span), which is about 1.3× smaller than the reference, a hard-shell taco at 15 cm.
Dragonflies catch their prey on over ninety per cent of attempts, the best hit rate of any predator.
Common miss: players tend to inflate a large dragonfly when it sits beside a hard-shell taco — big things get squeezed, small familiar things get stretched.
Sizes are measured along the axis named in each round and link to their published source. Explore the full library by category, or read how scoring works.