13 OBJECTS · 1 cm TO 56 cm

Size It Up: Insects & Bugs

Insects and bugs invert the game: here the challenge is how small things are. A honey bee, a leafcutter ant and a mosquito sit beside record breakers like the Atlas moth, the Goliath beetle and the giant wētā. Sizing a wingspan of 25 cm next to a 1 cm bee is harder than any skyscraper.

The Insects & Bugs set holds 13 measured objects, from a ladybird beetle at 1 cm to a giant stick insect at 56 cm — the numbers on this page cover a factor of about 56. Each one is measured on the axis the game scores: standing height for things you would walk up to, longest visible span for everything else. Every size below links to the published measurement it came from.

THE NUMBERS

How big are these, really?

All 13 objects in the Insects & Bugs set, smallest to largest. Each rung is compared with the one below it, so the category reads as a single ladder rather than a list of unrelated figures.

1 cm

Ladybird Beetle length / span

Ladybird Beetle: One ladybird can eat several thousand aphids in a lifetime. Source ↗

1.3 cm

Leafcutter Ant length / span

Leafcutter Ant: Leafcutters routinely carry many times their own body weight. About 1.3× the length of a ladybird beetle. Source ↗

1.5 cm

Honey Bee length / span

Honey Bee: A worker weighs about a tenth of a gram and cruises at 25 km/h. About 1.2× the length of a leafcutter ant. Source ↗

1.5 cm

Mosquito length / span

Mosquito: Only the females bite; the whine is the wingbeat, hundreds of times a second. Practically the same length as a honey bee. Source ↗

10 cm

Monarch Butterfly length / span

Monarch Butterfly: Monarchs migrate as far as 4,000 km on a 10 cm wingspan. About 6.7× the length of a mosquito. Source ↗

10 cm

Praying Mantis length / span

Praying Mantis: A mantis can turn its head almost all the way round, which few insects manage. Practically the same length as a monarch butterfly. Source ↗

10 cm

Giant Wētā length / span

Giant Wētā: One of the heaviest insects on Earth — a large female outweighs a sparrow. Practically the same length as a praying mantis. Source ↗

11 cm

Goliath Beetle length / span

Goliath Beetle: Among the heaviest insects alive — the larvae can reach 100 g. About 1.1× the length of a giant wētā. Source ↗

12 cm

Large Dragonfly length / span

Large Dragonfly: Dragonflies catch their prey on over ninety per cent of attempts, the best hit rate of any predator. About 1.1× the length of a Goliath beetle. Source ↗

27 cm

Atlas Moth Wingspan length / span

Atlas Moth Wingspan: Atlas moths have some of the largest wings of any insect. About 2.3× the length of a large dragonfly. Source ↗

28 cm

Goliath Birdeater length / span

Goliath Birdeater: Its leg span can be wider than a dinner plate. Practically the same length as an Atlas moth wingspan. Source ↗

30 cm

Giant Centipede length / span

Giant Centipede: Scolopendra gigantea hunts bats in mid-air, plucking them from cave ceilings. About 1.1× the length of a Goliath birdeater. Source ↗

56 cm

Giant Stick Insect length / span

Giant Stick Insect: Record stick insects can exceed half a metre with legs extended. About 1.9× the length of a giant centipede. Source ↗

PLAY IT

Play the Insects & Bugs set

Reading the numbers is one thing; sizing them by eye against a reference silhouette is another.

The daily puzzle mixes every category, so these objects turn up there at random. For a set built only from them, Unlimited deals five of them at a time, as often as you like. Unlimited is practice: it is unranked and never touches the daily leaderboard. New to the game? How to play covers the rules and the 0–500 scoring in two minutes.

KEEP GOING

Other categories

Every category has its own page of measured sizes. Landmarks and space produce the biggest scale shocks; sports and everyday objects are the fairest places to calibrate your eye.