DAILY NO. 17 · VERIFIED MEASUREMENTS
The five insects & bugs objects from the Size It Up puzzle on September 17, 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 leafcutter ant measures 1.3 cm (length / span), which is about 1.2× smaller than the reference, a honey bee at 1.5 cm.
Leafcutters routinely carry many times their own body weight.
Common miss: players tend to inflate a leafcutter ant when it sits beside a honey bee — big things get squeezed, small familiar things get stretched.
Answer: a praying mantis measures 10 cm (length / span), which is 1.3× as big as the reference, a hockey puck at 7.6 cm.
A mantis can turn its head almost all the way round, which few insects manage.
Common miss: players tend to compress a praying mantis when it sits beside a hockey puck — big things get squeezed, small familiar things get stretched.
Answer: a large dragonfly measures 12 cm (length / span), which is 1.2× as big as the reference, a monarch butterfly at 10 cm.
Dragonflies catch their prey on over ninety per cent of attempts, the best hit rate of any predator.
Common miss: players tend to compress a large dragonfly 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 about 1.2× smaller than the reference, a French baguette at 65 cm.
Record stick insects can exceed half a metre with legs extended.
Common miss: players tend to inflate a giant stick insect when it sits beside a French baguette — big things get squeezed, small familiar things get stretched.
Answer: a giant wētā measures 10 cm (length / span), which is almost exactly the same size as the reference, a praying mantis at 10 cm.
One of the heaviest insects on Earth — a large female outweighs a sparrow.
Common miss: players tend to inflate a giant wētā when it sits beside a praying mantis — 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.