Page 40 - The Miracle in the Ant

This invitation motion is very obvious in certain ant species (Hypo
ponera). When a pair of workers meet face to face, the inviting ant tilts
its head to the side 90 degrees and touches the bottom and top parts of
the head of its friend with its antennas. The invitee ant responds the
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same way. When the ants touch the bodies of their nest mates, the goal
is not to give them information but to obtain information by detecting
the chemicals they secrete. One ant taps lightly on the body of its nest
mate and touches strongly with its antenna. When it gets close to its nest
mate, its goal here is to bring the chemical signals as close as possible
to the other. As a result, it will be able to detect and follow the scent
path its friend has just left and reach the food source.
The most striking example that may be set forth for communication
by touch is an ant’s feeding another ant with the food it has kept in its
crop by getting it out of its mouth by a short touch. In an interesting test
made on this subject, various parts of the bodies of worker ants of the
Myrmica and Formica species were stimulated by human hair and were
thus successfully prompted to bring liquid food out of their mouths. The
most sensitive ant was the one which had just eaten and was looking for
a nest mate with which to share what it had eaten. Researchers noted
that certain insects and parasites were aware of such tactics and they
were having themselves fed by practising this method. What the insect
had to do to attract the ant’s attention was just to touch the ant’s body
slightly with its antenna and its front leg. Then the touched ant would
share its meal, even if the creature in contact with it is of a different
type. 15
The ability of an ant to understand what the other one wants by a
short antenna contact shows that the ants may, in a sense, "speak"
among themselves. How this "antenna language" used among ants is
learned by all ants is another subject to think about. Are they undergo-
ing training on this subject? To talk about the existence of such training,
we must also talk about the existence of a superior Almighty Who pro-
vides it. Since it cannot be the ants who can provide such a training, this
Almighty is Allah Who, by way of inspiration, teaches all ants a language
with which to communicate.
The sharing behaviour practised among ants is a specimen of self-
sacrifice that cannot be explained by the theory of evolution. Some evo-
lutionists who see the adage "Big fish swallow small fish" as the key to
life on earth are forced to withdraw such words when confronted with

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40 THE MIRACLE IN THE ANT