The ''Bugs: the Mega World of Minibeasts'' exhibition answered many questions about the extraordinary powers of bugs.
Among them was: ''How long is the silk thread in an average silk worm cocoon?''
Answer: About 1km.
Silkworms, which are caterpillars of the silk moth, produce all that silk in just two to three days when they are creating their cocoons.
The show, which ended on May 10 and had run for six months, featured an interactive ''bug gym'', created with help from Otago Polytechnic's Innovation Workspace.
The gym enabled visitors to interact imaginatively with the world of bugs, including insects and arachnids, that make up more than 80% of the world's species.
Among the exhibits was one which encouraged visitors to pull on a rope attached to a larger-than-life model silkworm, to simulate the equivalent length of silk thread produced.
The length was recorded and displayed on a monitor.
Museum marketing co-ordinator Kate Barron said it took 120 silkworms to produce sufficient silk to make one silk tie.
If all the visitors had been silkworms, they could have created fibre for 335 silk ties.
But despite the more than 40,000 visitors' vigorous pulling efforts, the humans produced only the equivalent of three and a-half ties.
