Multi-Legged Chemical Warfare

Psalm 68:5
“A father of the fatherless, and a judge of the widows, [is] God in his holy habitation.”

Insects use a vast array of chemical strategies to defend themselves from predators. Some of their strategies are so ingenious that they could only have been made by an all-wise Creator, Who knows how everything in the creation works. One of the world’s greatest experts on insects has noted that insects are far more complex creatures than biologists had ever imagined.

Most chemical warfare used by insects is for defense. The goal of most of this defense seems to be to make the insect unpleasant to a predator. Millipedes, beetles and other insects spray an irritating chemical called quinone at their enemies. If an ant is shot with quinine, it becomes dizzy and staggers away while trying the wipe the chemical off itself. Some millipedes spray cyanide at intruders to discourage them. The whip scorpion fires a stream of liquid that is 84 percent acetic acid at its enemy. The female assassin bug collects camphor from certain plants and spreads it on her eggs to repel predators.

One beetle is so full of the birth-control hormone progesterone that it is a walking birth-control pill. If you ate a steady diet of this beetle, you would never produce any children. However, all these researchers show that chemical defense is both biologically sophisticated and far-sighted.

The Creator has given some of His creatures chemical weapons for their defense. To others He has given speed or intelligence. It is very clear that God has given His love to all His creatures.

Prayer:
You have given many different kinds of gifts to Your creatures, Lord. I thank You that You have given Your love to all Your creatures. Help me to use the gifts You have given me to let others know about Your forgiving love. Amen.

Notes:
Natalie Angier. 1984. “Thomas Eisner: The Bug Man of Ithaca.” Discover, Feb., pp. 49-58. Photo: Used by permission of Franco Folini and licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.

Print