Insects in the Snow

Psalm 147:16-18
“He giveth snow like wool: he scattereth the hoarfrost like ashes. He casteth forth his ice like morsels: who can stand before his cold? He sendeth out his word, and melteth them: he causeth his wind to blow, [and] the waters flow.”

People who live in climates where there is ice and snow are used to seeing the activity of warm-blooded creatures even in winter. However, reptiles and amphibians, because they are cold-blooded, seem to disappear in the winter. But did you know that many kinds of insects continue to be active in the winter?

How can insects be active this time of year without freezing? After all, when living tissue freezes, expanding ice crystals destroy tissue membranes. Insects survive freezing temperatures in much the same way as does an automobile – with antifreeze! Many insects manufacture either a form of alcohol or glycerol, which is chemically similar to the antifreeze in your car.

Eastern tent caterpillars are very much alive within their cocoons, and by midwinter their body weight is over one third antifreeze. One parasitic wasp larvae is able to continue living at temperatures as low as -52 degrees F. Some 25 of the 700 known species of pygmy locust actually live in or near Arctic regions. And the snowfly gets its name from the fact that its life is carried on in the snows of winter.

It seems doubtful that the world before the Flood had winters as we do today. Yet, in His wisdom, God built special provisions into many of His creatures so that they could survive when winter cold as we know it today became a reality.

Prayer:
Dear Father in heaven, I thank You that You care for all of Your creatures. Help me to depend more on You and less on myself, so that Your glory may be seen in my life. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.

Notes:
Photo: Pygmy locust. Courtesy of Olaf Leillinger. Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 Generic license.