For strength and spring, the girls beat the boys in Dunedin yesterday but the insects beat them all.
Dunedin gym staff got to test interactive exhibits at Otago Museum's ''Bugs: the Mega World of Minibeasts'' yesterday, before it opens to the public tomorrow.
An exhibit compared human strength against a dung beetle's by the pushing of a giant ''dung'' ball.
Les Mills Dunedin gym instructor Bethany Robertson used all of her 65kg of weight to push the ball and was deemed 0.0010 times as strong as a dung beetle.
After a guffaw by personal trainer Joe Hemi, he urged gym instructor Tom Galloway to better Miss Robertson.
''You'll be crushing that,'' Mr Hemi said.
The two-handed thrust of the 92kg Mr Galloway failed to reach his colleagues' scores, leaving both men dumbfounded.
''Oh, Tommy, no,'' Mr Hemi exclaimed.
A species of dung beetle can move 1141 times its own body weight, the same as an average person moving six double decker buses full of passengers.
''Did you beat me?'' Mr Galloway asked, dumbfounded.
''Let's settle this. Get the bench press out,'' he said, seeking a rematch.
Mr Hemi assured Mr Galloway he would get one back for the boys at the exhibit testing the upward jump of a froghopper.
However, his jump was lower than the 61cm jump of petite fitness instructor Katie Love.
''Did you beat me?'' he asked after his jump.
''Are you serious?''The froghopper would beat them both, soaring to a 70cm high jump at a rate of 4000m per second.
Museum marketing co-ordinator Kate Barron said the exhibition included more than 800 arthropods, including insects.
Miss Barron said the arthropods ranged from bees to butterflies and included a live exhibit of cockroaches and huhu grubs in the ''bug brother house''.
Another exhibit in the ''bug gym'' examined the spinning ability of a silkworm.
Silk worms - the caterpillars of the silk moth - could spin about 1km of silk thread in two or three days when creating their cocoons.
The exhibition opens tomorrow and runs until May.
