Articles
Beetles: Nature's
Workaholics
by Paula McKerlie
Although many of us may prefer to keep our distance from beetles,
a close look at these tireless toilers is a rewarding exercise.
Coming in all shapes and sizes, beetles are part of the largest
order of insects. The order Coleoptera comprises beetles and weevils,
and with 250,000 known species, it represents 40 per cent of all
known insect species.
Despite the
fact that evolutionists have fossils of ‘ancient’ beetles,
they have been unable to explain how the insects developed such a
wide range of characteristics.
Many beetle species vary dramatically from each other, from size
and diet, to preferred habitat and survival techniques.
More beetles are found in the tropics than anywhere else. However,
they can live in almost any habitat occupied by other insects, except
Antarctica and the highest altitudes.
Beetles range in size from less than one millimetre to more than
12 centimetres (the length of a ball point pen!). Goliath and Hercules
beetles can be up to 15 centimetres long.
Some feed on plants, while others are scavengers, predators or parasites,
and some species feed on fungi.
Spider beetles feed on dead insects and animal skins, cigarette
beetles on tobacco and other dried plant products, whirligig beetles
on water insects, and some click beetles feed on the larvae of wood-boring
insects. Soldier beetles eat worms, fireflies mainly eat snails,
and some scarab beetles feed on dung. June beetles feed on grasses
and leaves, and bess beetles feed on rotting logs.
Beetles can be found living below the ground, in water, and in nests
of ants and termites. Beetle legs have various designs, depending
on whether they swim, run, jump, clasp or dig.
Perhaps most amazing is the variety of protection techniques used
by members of the Coleoptera order, including camouflage, bad smell
and intimidating features.
One African beetle, Petrognatha gigas, looks like dead velvety moss,
and its antennae resemble dried plant tendrils or twigs.
Some weevils fold their limbs, and look like seeds or tiny clumps
of soil, and bombardier beetles fire hot smelly gases at predators.
Evolutionists
regard beetles as very ancient, yet even the most ‘ancient’ specimens
display the characteristics recognized in beetles today.
Encyclopaedia
Britannica says ‘complete fossil specimens are
closely related to living forms’, which raises the question
of what ancestry evolutionists propose for beetles.
The same encyclopaedia
supposes ‘they probably evolved from
ancestors of the present-day Neuroptera [lacewings]’, which
in turn ‘may have evolved from an early mecopteran (Scorpionfly)
ancestral stem’ (emphasis added).
Evolutionists are unable to prove these theories because of the
absence of evidence indicating that beetles evolved from non-beetles,
despite the multitude of living and fossil beetles.
We have no reason to doubt Genesis when it says all living creatures
(including creeping things) were created perfect by God.
Sources:
Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1992, Vol. 21, pp. 699, 714–722;
How Insects Live, William Blaney, Gallery Press, Leicester, UK, 1977.
http://www.creationontheweb.com/content/view/814/
Used
by permission of Creation Ministries International: www.creationontheweb.com
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