How high can insects fly?

I live in a 12th floor and was wondering… how high can birds, flies, moths… and insects in general, fly?

There just so happens to be a Staff Report on just that subject, by me and Doug Yanega:

How high can birds and bees fly?

Space Spiders

How were they able to measure a bee’s body temperature while it was in flight? (Strap it down and induce it to flap?)

They stuck a very small thermometer up his butt. :stuck_out_tongue:

A calibrated infra red detector should do the job.

I believe the initial measurements were probably made on tethered insects using a thermocouple. More sophisticated methods are probably now available.

I once stayed on the 40th floor of a downtown Chicago hotel. The exterior of the windows were covered in spider webs. Presumably there must have been flying insects at that height for them to catch.

Either that or there are suicidal spiders in Chicago. :stuck_out_tongue:

In downtown Chicago, who wouldn’t be.

(Just kidding. I like Chicago. My wife and I used to drive to Chicago from Iowa City to watch the Cubs at least once each summer.)

Now that could provoke suicidal behavior. :slight_smile: