Six insects, sorted by how they find their way
Not by how fast they sprint. Every speed below is a real measurement with a source, and a letter flies the great-circle route at exactly that pace. The distance on the right is what each one covers in a week.
0.2 km/h · rolls a straight line, steering off the Milky Way
Source: Milky Way orientation: Dacke et al., Current Biology 201334 km
a week
3.1 km/h · 855 mm/s, fastest ant alive · counts its steps home
Source: 855 mm/s: Pfeffer et al., J Exp Biol 2019 (Guinness, fastest ant)521 km
a week
22 km/h · waggle-dances the bearing back to the hive
Source: 13.9 mph (22 km/h) cruising flight speed3,696 km
a week
33 km/h · wind-tunnel measured · swarms cross continents
Source: 33 km/h, wind-tunnel measurement5,544 km
a week
45 km/h · radar-tracked · crosses the Sahara twice, 12,000 km
Source: 45 km/h radar ground speed, ~22 km/h unassisted; 12,000–14,000 km round trip (University of Reading)7,560 km
a week
56 km/h · fastest insect reliably clocked · migrates in relays
Source: ~56 km/h (35 mph), Smithsonian9,408 km
a week
Why no insect crosses 11,000 km in a week
Jakarta to Amsterdam by green darner is about eight and a half days. Regional Asia-Pacific and the Middle East land inside a week. Europe and the Americas do not. Distance means something again.
Not on the roster
The horsefly's 145 km/h has never been rigorously reproduced, and it bites people. Nothing that bites, nothing associated with rot.
Wanted, blocked on data: the bogong moth flies 1,000 km by starlight, the first invertebrate shown to use a stellar compass (Nature, 2025), but no published flight speed exists. The globe skimmer dragonfly crosses the Indian Ocean over several generations.