DAILY NO. 17 · VERIFIED MEASUREMENTS
Today's five insects & bugs Size It Up comparisons with the measured size of each object, its reference and a source you can check. The puzzle is still live, so every answer stays hidden until you tap it. Haven't played yet? Play today's puzzle first.
The October 8, 2026 puzzle ran from a ladybird beetle at 1 cm to a large dragonfly at 12 cm — about 12× apart, drawing on insects & bugs. The pair furthest apart was round 4: a praying mantis is 1.3× as big as a hockey puck.
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 1.3× 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: Giant Wētā — 10 cm. A giant wētā measures 10 cm (length / span), which is almost exactly the same size as the reference, a monarch butterfly 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 monarch butterfly — big things get squeezed, small familiar things get stretched.
Answer: Praying Mantis — 10 cm. 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: Large Dragonfly — 12 cm. 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.