Can Insects Survive a Fall from Great Heights?

[superweirdo]

An ant has no skeletons, so as long as she doesn't burn by falling, she wouldn't die right? Neither any of hte other animals who don't have skeletons.

 

[AO eye 5]

The ant has an exoskeleton, I am not sure if it is across the entire species, and the insects should have an initial stage before this skeleton develops--they are soft "larvae" when hatched. Also, the skeleton has to be considered along with scaling: i.e. mass, acceleration, impulse, etc.

 

[AO eye 5]

Accelerating "bug" insects, bacteria, etc.

Here is an interesting http://www.lpl.arizona.edu/conferences/lplc/2000/abstract_volume/1030_2.pdf"

 

[chance]

I would think an ant would not be able to reach a fatal terminal velocity, in our atmosphere. Dropping an ant on the moon however (suffocation excluded) and high enough, should kill the ant.

 

[DaveC426913]

Smaller creatures are proportionally less susceptible to death by falling because their surface to mass ratio is high.

It is partly to do with air resistance, but there is also a factor of material support (just like a narrow copper pipe is stronger than a large copper pipe).

As an alternate example to an ant, a tarantula, if dropped from human-height, will die.

 

[Hootenanny]

As an alternate example to an ant, a tarantula, if dropped from human-height, will die.

Good. I hate spiders!