Alexandra Sasakowski, age 11, of Atherton, California, for her question:
How fast can insects fly?
When you try to swat a pesky fly, chances are he outsmarts you. True, the tricky little wretch is an artful dodger. But surely he makes his getaway at 100 miles an hour, or faster. Not at all. Experts estimate that a housefly flits around at an average speed of about dive miles per hour. Of course he can fly somewhat faster, but not much faster than you can sprint. However, there are other insects that can match the speed limits set for highway traffic.
Insects have been ace fliers for same 300 million years, which gave them plenty of time to practice. Most of them have either one pair or two pairs of wings which are controlled by elaborate systems of very strong little muscles. Some are much better fliers than others, and many species are champion aerial acrobats.
Speed, of course, is clocked by the time it takes to get from here to there. It is not easy to clock the flight of insects because they tend to dart this way and that as they go. Nevertheless, experts have estimated the average speeds at which some of them cruise around on their daily chores. They also have clocked some of the champion long distance fliers.
A butterfly seems to waste a lot of time as she flutters from flower to flower. Actually, her average cruising speed is about 12 miles per hour. If you chase her, brandishing a butterfly net, she flies much faster. She bats her big wings about four times a second and some butterflies can fly hundreds of miles. A big hawk moth has a cruising speed of 25 miles per hour.
The busy honeybee cruises around the garden at about 13 miles per hour and flies faster when she makes her beeline back to the hive. Though the tricky housefly usually zooms around at only five miles per hour, the bigger horsefly can go much faster. He buzzes across the pasture at 25 miles per hour and speeds up when chased by a hungry sparrow.
Host experts agree that the speed champion of the insect world is big beauteous dragonfly. As she darts and hovers over the water, her four gauzy wings steel glimpses of rainbow colors from the sunbeams. Her two front wings beat up as the two back wings beat down, alternating up and down faster than your eye can see.
On a lazy day, a dainty dragonfly darts around at between 25 and 30 miles an.hour. But when in a hurry, it is estimated that she can reach a speed of 60 miles per hour.
The long distance champions of the insect world seem to be locusts and certain butterflies. Swarms of famished locusts have been known to fly as far as 2,000 miles in search of food. Flocks of orange brown monarch butterflies migrate with the seasons. Some fly many hundreds of miles across the continent to spend the winter in California.