Articles

A “For Real Ant” Builds Traps

By Karl C. Priest July 9, 2022

Ants that live in trees are called arboreal. That is pronounced are-BOR-e-ul and the spelling makes me think of “are for real.” The ants, for this article, have a scientific name: Allomerus decemarticulatus, but we will call them “For Real” ants.

Their color is light yellow and they have lots of hair on their bodies. “For Real” ants are about two millimeters (MM) long. Get out a ruler and, on the metric side, put your fingernail in the mm space. WOW! That is VERY tiny!

A special tree makes little houses for these ants to live in. The houses are called leaf pockets and look like little balls. There are several pockets in the tree and over a thousand ants live on one tree.

“For Real” ants have a special ability that God designed. They eat some things like nectar-plant juice, but they also are able to capture insects that are a whole lot larger than themselves. They do it by building a trap in the form of a platform.

The trap is design is amazing! “For Real” ants build a platform on a stem. This platform looks like part of the tree. It is made from tree hairs that the “For Real” ants arrange by spitting up mold, they grow on the tree, to use as paste.

“For Real” ants make holes in the platform. These holes are a little wider than the “For Real” ants. They hide in the holes and when a big insect (like a grass hopper) gets on the platform, “For Real” ants come out of the holes and use their mandibles (sort of like pincers) to bite the big insect. As they do this, “For Real” ants release a chemical substance (odor) that lets other “For Real” ants know they need help.

Besides helping the ants get food, the traps protect the tree from predators that would harm the tree.

Just think about what you would have to do to build a trap to catch something that can be 100 times heavier than you. You would have to think and plan. “For Real” ants cannot think and plan. Neither can evolution.

God created “For Real” ants and designed them to do complex things for us to think about. As the Bible says, “Go to the ant, thou sluggard (lazy person); consider her ways, and be wise.” (Proverbs 6:6)

Consider (think carefully) about For Real” ants and, not only will you be wise, you will be blessed.

Note: This is published at https://thecreationclub.com/for-real-arboreal-ants/