Why are so many dead bugs lying on their back?

Diana - This is a bit of a mysterious one, because there's no actual research that has gone into looking at this statistically to prove if it's true. What I think is happening is that when a bug dies, it gets a sort of rigor mortis, and either all of its legs on one side will fold up or it will suddenly get a spring in one side of its legs, and it will sort of flip it over onto its back. And it also could be a question of whether or not it's more stable lying on its back because that's the heaviest part, and it might be the more natural side for it to lie once its legs are all folded up and no longer supporting its body weight. And I have a very sad story to tell actually. I used to have a pet budgie and one day, I came home from school and I found him lying on his back at the bottom of his cage. But obviously, when he was dead, that was the way he was going to lie down because his legs could no longer support him and it would be unstable if he would be on his front so he ends up on his back.

Dave - It could also be that quite a lot of bugs spend their time crawling up walls and things. And so, when they die, they might fall off the wall and so, it could be that falling upside down is the stable way for it to fall through the air because the legs are going to act as tails, so it should fall through the air upside down and end up upside down on the ground.