DAILY NO. 27 · VERIFIED MEASUREMENTS
The five insects & bugs objects from the Size It Up puzzle on September 27, 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: an Atlas moth wingspan measures 27 cm (length / span), which is almost exactly the same size as the reference, an American football at 28 cm.
Atlas moths have some of the largest wings of any insect.
Common miss: players tend to inflate an Atlas moth wingspan when it sits beside an American football — big things get squeezed, small familiar things get stretched.
Answer: a large dragonfly measures 12 cm (length / span), which is 1.1× as big as the reference, a Goliath beetle at 11 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 Goliath beetle — big things get squeezed, small familiar things get stretched.
Answer: a Goliath beetle measures 11 cm (length / span), which is 1.1× as big as the reference, a hamburger at 10 cm.
Among the heaviest insects alive — the larvae can reach 100 g.
Common miss: players tend to compress a Goliath beetle when it sits beside a hamburger — big things get squeezed, small familiar things get stretched.
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 mosquito measures 1.5 cm (length / span), which is 1.2× as big as the reference, a leafcutter ant at 1.3 cm.
Only the females bite; the whine is the wingbeat, hundreds of times a second.
Common miss: players tend to compress a mosquito 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.