DAILY NO. 5 · VERIFIED MEASUREMENTS
The September 26, 2026 puzzle ran from a ladybird beetle at 1 cm to an Atlas moth wingspan at 27 cm — about 27× apart, drawing on insects & bugs. The pair furthest apart was round 2: a ladybird beetle is about 1.5× smaller than a mosquito.
Puzzle #5 asked about a mosquito, a ladybird beetle, a large dragonfly, an Atlas moth wingspan and a honey bee. Each answer below gives the measured size, the reference it stood beside and the source behind the number. Want the surprise first? Replay this puzzle — archived days never touch your streak.
Answer: Mosquito — 1.5 cm. A mosquito measures 1.5 cm (length / span), which is almost exactly the same size as the reference, a honey bee at 1.5 cm.
Only the females bite; the whine is the wingbeat, hundreds of times a second.
Common miss: players tend to inflate a mosquito when it sits beside a honey bee — big things get squeezed, small familiar things get stretched.
Answer: Ladybird Beetle — 1 cm. A ladybird beetle measures 1 cm (length / span), which is about 1.5× smaller than the reference, a mosquito at 1.5 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 mosquito — big things get squeezed, small familiar things get stretched.
Answer: Large Dragonfly — 12 cm. 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: Atlas Moth Wingspan — 27 cm. An Atlas moth wingspan measures 27 cm (length / span), which is 1.1× as big as the reference, an NBA basketball at 24.3 cm.
Atlas moths have some of the largest wings of any insect.
Common miss: players tend to compress an Atlas moth wingspan when it sits beside an NBA basketball — big things get squeezed, small familiar things get stretched.
Answer: Honey Bee — 1.5 cm. A honey bee measures 1.5 cm (length / span), which is 1.2× as big as the reference, a leafcutter ant at 1.3 cm.
A worker weighs about a tenth of a gram and cruises at 25 km/h.
Common miss: players tend to compress a honey bee when it sits beside a leafcutter ant — 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.