Caterpillars’ Diet Choices - Creation Moments

Psalm 86:8-10
“Among the gods [there is] none like unto thee, O Lord; neither [are there any works] like unto thy works. All nations whom thou hast made shall come and worship before thee, O Lord; and shall glorify thy name. For thou [art] great, and doest wondrous things: thou [art] God alone.”

The diamondback caterpillar is the number-one pest of plants in the cabbage family. But scientists are finding that this caterpillar isn’t as guilty of causing low yields in cabbage family plots as has been thought.

It turns out that, given a choice between a cabbage field which is doing very well and a field next door which Caterpillar's Diet Choices is not doing so well, the diamondback caterpillar will prefer to munch on the less healthy field where yields are already decreased. That might seem like poor judgment on the part of the caterpillar. But scientists have only recently learned what the caterpillar seems to have known all along.

The caterpillar’s primary predator is a parasite wasp. But this wasp looks for its meals in healthy cabbage fields. So while the wasp is looking for caterpillars in healthy fields, the caterpillars are next door in the field that isn’t doing quite so well. This means that the solution to caterpillar problems on cabbage family plants is not more insecticide, but healthier plants.

The logical question is, how did the caterpillars figure out how to outsmart the wasps? The obvious answer is that their Creator, Who knows all about wasps and caterpillars, built this wisdom into the caterpillars.

Prayer:
Dear Father in heaven, help us all to learn more about how Your creation works so that we may benefit from Your wisdom and become more productive and less destructive. I especially ask that You would use Your people to lead the way in this so that You may be glorified even among unbelievers. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.

Notes:
Photo: Tobacco hornworm caterpillar Manduca sexta parasitized by Braconidae wasp larvae. Courtesy of Stsmith. Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.