# why do insects go tits up when they die? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\ **Created:** [July 9, 2004, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-insects-go-tits-up-when-they-die/254218 "2004-07-09T03:06:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![CC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f1d935/32.png) [@CC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CC)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2004, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-insects-go-tits-up-when-they-die/254218/1 "2004-07-09T03:06:32Z")
I’ve seen it happen a few times, too. Just as they get to the end of the death throes, they turn over onto their backs. What’s up with this? Why do so many insects die that way? Why don’t they just slow down and die with their little tootsies on the ground? What is the scientific speculation on this? Is it a question of hydraulics? Is there something adaptive in it? It’s so peculiar. Dopers? what say you? xo C. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2004, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-insects-go-tits-up-when-they-die/254218/2 "2004-07-09T03:17:19Z")
(You Knew it was Coming) Insects have Tits? I’m sorry. I couldn’t help myself. ---
**Author:** ![Rico](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rico/32/3582_2.png) [@Rico](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rico)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2004, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-insects-go-tits-up-when-they-die/254218/3 "2004-07-09T03:19:41Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > Insects have Tits? Must have been a “Bee” cup… :smack: ---
**Author:** ![KP](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/a9adbd/32.png) [@KP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KP)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2004, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-insects-go-tits-up-when-they-die/254218/4 "2004-07-09T03:57:00Z")
1. They don’t, necessarily. I’ve seen plenty of dead bugs on their feet 2. Towards the end, they can’t maintain coordinated gait and balance, especially since the fact that you’re watching them, certain they they’re taking their last step often means you just sprayed them with the bug equivalent of nerve gas, which causes body-wide spasms 3. Usually their center of gravity is lower with their body on the ground, rather than perched on their legs, so that’d the energetically favored position. (see “Why do humans fall over when they die?”) 4. If you weren’t standing there, ghoulishly watching like an Angel of Death, you’d actually probably see even more on their backs. Some of the ones that died on their feet would be flipped over by slight drafts, other insects running by (or eager to eat them from their softer undersides) etc. 5. It’s not tits up, it’s legs up. Bugs are notorious leg men ---
**Author:** ![minty\_green](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f6c823/32.png) [@minty\_green](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/minty_green)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2004, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-insects-go-tits-up-when-they-die/254218/5 "2004-07-09T03:59:20Z")
[Cecil sez . . .](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a1_024.html) ---
**Author:** ![CC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f1d935/32.png) [@CC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CC)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2004, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-insects-go-tits-up-when-they-die/254218/6 "2004-07-11T21:33:06Z")
I have never had the temerity to question the great master, but I think the answer is still incomplete and I’m hoping an entomologist will skitter along to help me with this. Cecil’s last hypothesis is that poison causes pre-death twitching, leading to some insects to flip onto their backs. I would think that would result in a minority of insects dying on their backs, the rest in their normal, perambulating orientation. But as one of his correspondents observed, most of them were on their backs. I have seen this situation with many insects, usually beetles I think, and I still don’t understand why so many insects would be found dead with their legs up. Why would twitching turn them over? I guess that’s my main question, and I think it’s a physics or design question. What is it that makes bugs more stable on their backs, rather than, say with their little legs folded up underneath them? xo C. ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2004, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-insects-go-tits-up-when-they-die/254218/7 "2004-07-11T21:39:15Z")
If you saw a dead bug in a “back up” position, you probably wouldn’t notice it. You might consider the bug still alive, although it could be dead. When you see one in a “legs up” configuration, you KNOW it’s dead. So you register it as dead. I say this is just a perceived problem, not an actual one. [sub]Help, Colibri! Get in here! [/sub]