Abstract
LAST night a small beetle (Aphodius fossor), the length of which is ½ inch, flew in at my window and alighted on a table next to me. As it buzzed about I put a lid of a tin box over it, but to my surprise the beetle walked about bearing the lid on its back. I then put the tin box on the top of the lid, and was absolutely amazed to find that the insect tilted up a corner of the combined box and lid, and nearly escaped. The weight of the beetle when dead was ½ grain, alive I suppose it was a little more; but the box and lid weighed 1758 grains! Assuming that the living insect weighed 1 grain, it must have tilted up 1758 times its own weight! Of course, the strength required to tilt up a box on edge is nothing like so great as that required actually to lift the weight, but nevertheless the feat seems to me sufficiently astounding. The dimensions of the box are 3 × 2 × 1½ inches.
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