Wasps Do the Biologically Impossible

Acts 17:29

^“Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man’s device.”

When it comes to wasps, you can just forget everything you learned about sexual reproduction in biology 101. There are male and female wasps. But that has very little to do with wasp reproduction.

For starters, male wasps can only reproduce female offspring. After mating, the female wasp stores the male’s seed in a sac in her reproductive tract. It will only be used when the female lays her eggs on the pupa of a fly, and then only if she wants daughters. The female can control how many of her offspring will be female and how many will be male. She can squeeze the sac to fertilize an egg when it is laid. That egg will produce a female. If she decides not to fertilize the egg, it will develop into a male.

As scientists have studied this unusual system of reproduction, they have found that the story becomes even stranger. Some females produce only male offspring. Further research shows that this is due to factors inherited through the male line. The mystery is that there is no male line. Males can only produce females. Even worse, for those who believe that wasps evolved instead of being created by God, this system offers so many disadvantages to the wasp that it should never have evolved.

While the wasp is at a disadvantage in this arrangement, God has arranged things so that the wasp can survive. That survival appears to serve another of God’s purposes. It challenges those who think that there is no Creator and God of the universe.

Prayer: I thank You, Lord, that You care for the universe and its creatures. I also thank You that You desire a relationship with us so much that You use what You have made as a witness to Yourself. And I thank You that You cared so much for me that You gave Your life on the cross so that my sins could be forgiven. Amen.

Author: Paul A. Bartz

Photo: Wasp (Pixabay.com)