In 1910, a British tabloid called “The Strand Magazine” ran an alarming feature titled “If Insects Were Bigger,” inserting photographs of ordinary English insects into contemporary Edwardian street scenes.
Author J.H. Kerner-Greenwood wrote:
It is true we are still molested by hordes of wild animals of bloodthirsty propensities. These wild animals only lack the single quality–namely, that of size–to render them all-powerful and all-desolating, and this quality they have not been able to attain owing to the lack of favouring conditions.
With earthly conditions favoring humans rather than insects, let’s take a look at Kerner-Greenwood’s terrifying world that might have been, if insects were bigger…
Terrible Attack by a Larva of the Puss-Moth at Covent Garden.
The Araneus Diadema Spider Descends Upon Trafalgar Square.
Fierce Onslaught by an Earwig in St. James’s Street.
A Dragon-Fly Captures an Unsuspecting Four-Wheeler in Liverpool.
Exploits of a House-Fly at the Bank of England.
A Leviathan Grasshopper’s Arrival in Princes Street, Edinburgh.
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Actually, conditions on earth are pretty favorable to most insects. It isn’t size that has caused them to survive, but their huge quantities.
Conditions on Earth also prevent them from attaining the sizes depicted.
Thankfully, invertebrates cannot grow that big because their exoskeletons are not strong enough to support them beyond a certain size.
British people are really short!
Nah, we just have big insects.
Thought these were stills from a Bert Gordon movie
I can discern as much from some of the hatching, and by having a long acquaintance with such exaggerations.
These are hysterical! Can you imagine the sales pitch of the creator to the editor? “So, I’ve got this idea for a series of terrifying photo manipulations…”
Thanks for posting these, they’re great!
Waiting for “Texas” comments.
Waiting for the “climate change evidence” comments…
Texas? Hmph. Try Australia. Our bugs are bigger, faster and nastier. We have to use FA-18s to take down blowflies. Still waiting on the B2 and a few crates of Durandals to make a start on the bull-ant problem.
Yeah, Texas doesn’t have anything like that. Now Louisiana and Alaska on the other hand…
Don’t forget the majority of the top 20 deadly snakes are Aussie… then we get to the spiders! Redbacks anyone?
The Strand was not really a tabloid, either physically or content-wise.
http://www.strandmag.com/hist.htm
For that first still… try Canada. Canadian mosquitoes are the size of cats, I’ve seen with my own eyes….
Okay so that’s what happens when England gets too close to Japan.