Articles
A Butterfly and an Ant
by Anonymous
One
of my favorite things to do is to study about animals, their amazing
design, and the things they do. Sometimes I run across animals with
strange ways of living. The Large Blue butterfly (Maculinea arion)
is one of those unusual animals.
Like other butterflies, the Large Blue butterfly begins its life
as a caterpillar. It is the Large Blue's life as a caterpillar that
is different from other butterflies: The adult Large Blue butterfly
lays its eggs on the leaves of a plant called wild thyme. After a
short period of time these eggs hatch into caterpillars. These young
caterpillars begin to eat the wild thyme. After three weeks of feeding
on the wild thyme, they, unlike most other caterpillars, fall to
the ground.
Once on the ground the caterpillar just lays there, waiting for
a red ant to come by and find him. When an ant finds the caterpillar,
the ant rubs the caterpillar with it's antennae to discover what
he has found. This petting causes the caterpillar to give off chemical
smells (pheromones) that fool the ants into thinking that the caterpillar
is one of them. The caterpillar also oozes a sweet sugary stuff that
the ants like to eat. Liking . what they have found, the ants carry
the caterpillar back to their nest.
Underground
in the ants' nest, ant eggs hatch out into short, fat, wormlike
grubs. These grubs later turn into ants. For ten months
the Large Blue caterpillar lives in the ants’ nest, eating
and gorging itself on ant grubs!
In late Mayor June the stuffed caterpillar changes and unfolds as
a beautiful Large Blue butterfly which spreads its wings and flies
away to begin the amazing process all over.
The Large Blue butterfly is a rare butterfly, and in 1979 was actually
declared extinct in the country of England. Scientists were puzzled.
The places the butterflies had been found still had red ants, and
still had wild thyme. So why had the Large Blue butterflies died
out?
What scientists discovered, after much observation of Large Blue
butterflies still living in other countries, was that the caterpillars
were very picky and choosy. Not just any red ant would do! The blue's
caterpillars only use one kind of red ant (the Myrmica sabuleti).
These special ants no longer lived where they had in England, therefore
the Large Blue butterflies could no longer live there either. Why
had the ants died out? Myrmica sabuleti build their nests in short
grass on south-facing hills that the Sun's ray's could bake and warm.
If the grass is too long the ants freeze to death. Rabbits and cows
had once eaten the grass and kept it short, but disease had killed
most of the rabbits and there were fewer cows. So the grass grew
longer, and these special ants died. Other red ants, that could stand
the cold, moved in, but they were the wrong kind for the Large Blues;
so the Large Blue butterfly also died out in these places.
When
we study the Large Blue caterpillar we see it had to have been
created with
intelligent design. How could it ever have happened
by chance and accident, as evolution would teach? Think: if by accident
the caterpillar fell off of the leaf to the ground and just laid
there without his special smells, the red ants would find him and
eat him for lunch! He wouldn't have a second chance or enough time
to make special smells to fool the ant. And he certainly couldn't
warn his friends about the danger, because he'd be dead. The only
way he could do all that he does with the ant is to have those special
smells and sugary stuff working before he meets the ant. Did he sit
around for thousands of years and dream up a way to fool the ant?
Of course not! Why didn't the ant quickly evolve so he wouldn't freeze
to death? Why didn't the caterpillar evolve different smells real
fast to smell like other ants? Because evolution does not work! They
had to have been designed and that design demands a designer. Creator…God!
Alph Omega Institute.
September/October 2001 by Lanny and Marilyn Johnson
|
