Return to moorhen home
page
Weights of Insects
We thought it would be interesting to know what typically insects weigh
and there doesn't seem to be much meaningful information published on
the web.
Our particular interest was dragonflies (from a private request for the
information)
but we have added a few other insects for comparison.
All these insects were netted on the authors land in the Midland UK,
and also
photographed before release (available on request).
Brown Hawker Dragonfly Male 25Jul2009 0.90g
(Later same day in different box as check) 0.88g
Common Darter Dragonfly Male 'A' 25Jul2009 0.13g
Common Darter Dragonfly Male 'B' 25Jul2009 0.22g
(Because of the discrepancy both these insects
re-weighed in different boxes but same results)
Bumble Bee 25Jul2009 0.39g
Red Admiral Butterfly 11Aug2009 0.25g
Peacock Butterfly 11Aug2009 0.23g
Southern Hawker Dragonfly Male 11Aug2009 0.91g
Southern Hawker Dragonfly Female 16Aug2009 0.99g
Migrant Hawker Female 17Aug2009 0.64g
Southern Hawker Dragonfly Female 19Aug2009 12:40 1.09g
Migrant Hawker Mature Male 19Aug2009 14:57 0.66g
Southern Hawker Dragonfly Female 23Aug2009 10:30 0.99g
Migrant Hawker Female 'A' 05Sep2009 11:20 0.50g
Migrant Hawker Female 'B' 05Sep2009 11:20 0.75g
These weights were obtained using a electronic weigher with 0.01g
claimed accuracy up to 100g (not exceeded).
The insect in a standard 'pill box' was weighed, and then the empty box
weighed and the difference calculated.
Each weighing was repeated.
'Tare' was not used because the weigher is not specified for such low
weights and resets to zero.
Box weighs 10g to 50g according to size & style.
Thus result accuracy should not be worse than 0.02g.