Do bugs take fall damage?

[The Wok]

This can't be a dumb question

[AJOTA]

small insects don't gain much speed when falling, like large animals do...

It's like that test of a book and a falling feather. If you release both at the same time and from the same height, you will notice that the book falls hard, while the feather falls slowly.

so its like they have parachutes (?)

[The Wok]

yeah but they don't even fall slow, they fall just as fast

[AJOTA]

but thats just look like it they have a lot of exposed area compared to their volume, so the air resistance holds them back and doesn't let them fall fast enough to get hurt...

[Rio]

I've heard sometimes people that own big spiders are scared that dropping them might kill them.

[Sidakte]

depends on the size of the insect and the height it will fall i think. some tarantulas may drop even from their terrarium and take injuries, thats why the lead must be really well-made as to not open at all from the inside

Originally posted by AJOTA:

but thats just look like it they have a lot of exposed area compared to their volume, so the air resistance holds them back and doesn't let them fall fast enough to get hurt...

yep.

[Phirestar]

They do not.

Source: Hollow Knight

[Nekoborg]

The smaller a thing is the thicker the atmosphere feels to them. At a small enough scale then air will feel like a thick viscous fluid to move through.

This has to do with fluid dynamics.

[Tiberius]

https://youtu.be/f7KSfjv4Oq0?si=OP8vbcgwALwuG4Nc

[Vertigo]

If you double the scale of something, the weight increases eight times.

A cube with a side length of one meter and a weight of one ton, would If you double the length to two meters, weight eight tons.

So small insect bodys experience less force when hitting the ground, because of that.

So they take less fall damage in comparison to us.

[Mauserich]

I have only heard that particularly large bugs cannot turn back once they are on their backs.

[De Hollandse Ezel]

yes they do.
but only very little.

firstly with less mass the impact of any fall is much weaker.
(force of impact = mass x speed change per unit of time)

so reducing weight is a very effective way to lessen impact.

but wait you may say :
force applied over a greater surface is experienced different than on a smaller one.. like a needle pricked in you at a certain force or that same force spread out over your body.

true.. but now we get to volume to skeleton numbers..
a tower floor need to support also all the floors above
if you upscale a human to 10x the size that human would break every bone in their body.. and certainly its legs just trying to stand if the boned would be proportionally the same as in our body.
-this larger human would need to have much thicker bones to end up with the same impact resistance as a smaller human.
this means a larger percentage of its mass would need to be bone leaving less for other tissues.

the reverse is also true... a human the size of an insect would need proportionally much less bone.

insects for their size have a lot of skeleton.. + their chitin outside skeleton also means tissues wont get hurt unless their skeleton fail

and thats all before factoring in air resistance that works stronger on the smaller bugs due a higher surface to mass ratio.

[Fumo Bnnuy n Frends]

biologist here

some do depending on factors. But usually insects are ironically small enough that wind can act as a buffer.

it's like if you fall from atop of the empire state building but with flaps. The wind will push you up a bit under right conditions

infact someone survived dying like that. They fell from a tall rooftop skyscraper but a gust of wind pushed them through a window a couple floors form the main floor or about hallway into an open window.


the other thing is insects have their skeleton on the OUTSIDE. Most do. So in essence it'd be like if you have armor on the outside and padding on the inside.

Unless they fall at a weird angle the exoskeleton protects it ALOT
if trees and other insects can't really harm it then a small fall shouldn't as much.

[Tsubame ⭐]

They can but usually that is not the case as they are too light and have too much surface area so as to air friction often reducing fall speeds considerably. Also, as pointed out, exoskeleton helps a lot.

[Pieshaman]

no, small animals aren't affected by gravity like bigger lifeforms.
thats why a mouse can survive a fall from a skyscraper and walk away after that.
they just lack the mass to impact the ground.

[Pieshaman]

Originally posted by Tsubame ⭐:

They can but usually that is not the case as they are too light and have too much surface area so as to air friction often reducing fall speeds considerably. Also, as pointed out, exoskeleton helps a lot.

its a gravity thing, not drag from air molecules.