274 DIVISION III. ARTICULATED ANIMALS.—CLASS IV. INSECTA. 
The destructive powers of these creatures, so insignificant in appearance, 
are still more surprising. During the spring of a single year, they can 
effect the ruin of a house by destroying the beams and planks. The town 
of La Rochelle, to which the Termites were imported by an American ship, 
is menaced with being eventually suspended on catacombs, like the town 
of Valencia in New Grenada. It is well known what destruction is caused 
when a swarm of locusts alight in a cultivated field; and it is certain that 
even their larvae do as much injury as the perfect insect. All this sufficiently 
proves the destructive capabilities of these little animals, which we are ac- 
customed to despise. 
M. Plateau has studied the power of traction in some insects — the power 
of pushing in the digging insects, and the lifting power of others during 
flight. He has thus been able to make some most interesting comparisons, 
of some of which we will relate the results. The average weight of man 
being one hundred and forty-two pounds, and his power of traction, accord- 
ing to Réenier, being one hundred and twenty-four pounds, the proportion 
of the weight he can draw to the weight of his body is only as eighty-seven 
to a hundred. With the horse the proportion is not more than sixty-seven 
to a hundred —a horse thirteen hundred and fifty pounds in weight only 
drawing about nine hundred pounds. The horse, therefore, can draw little 
more than half his own weight, and a man cannot draw the weight of his 
own body. This is a very poor result, if compared with the cock-chafer. 
This insect, in fact, possesses a power of traction equal to more than four- 
teen times its own weight. If you amuse yourself with the children’s games 
of making a cock-chafer draw small cargoes of stones, you will be surprised 
at the great weight which this insignificant looking animal is able to ac- 
complish. 
To test the power of traction in insects, M. Plateau attached them to a 
weight by means of a thread fastened to one of their feet. The Coleoptera 
(Beetles) are the best adapted for these experiments. 
The following are some of the results obtained by the Belgian physician : 
Carabus auratus can draw seven times the weight of its body; MNebria 
brevicollis, twenty-five times; MWecrophorus vespillo, fifteen times; 7ri- 
chius fasciatus, forty-one times; and Orystes nasicornis, four times only. 
The bee can draw twenty times the weight of its body ; Donacia nymphee, 
forty-two times its own weight. 
From this it follows that if the horse possessed the same strength as this 
last insect, or if the insect were the size of the horse, they would either of 
them be able to draw one hundred and fifty-five thousand two hundred and 
fifty pounds! Experiments have been made on the lifting power of insects 
by fastening a ball of soft wax to a thread attached to the hind legs. The 
proportion of the weight lifted has been found equal to that of the body. 
