Page 55 - The Miracle in the Ant

Weaver Ants

Weaver ants live in the trees building themselves nests out of leaves.
By combining the leaves, they are able to form nests over a few trees,
thus supporting a much larger population.
The stages of building are interesting. First, workers individually seek
locations in the colony territory that are suitable for expansion. When
they find a suitable branch, they disperse over the leaves of the branch
and start pulling in the leaves from the sides. When an ant succeeds in
bending a portion of a leaf, the workers close by also move towards it
and start pulling the leaf together. If the leaf is wider than the size of the
ant, or if it is necessary to pull two leaves together, the workers form a
life bridge between the points to be joined. Later on, some of the ants
in the chain climb on the backs of the ants beside them, thus shorten-
ing the chain, and the joining of the ends of the leaf is achieved. When
the leaf takes a tent-like shape, some of the ants keep holding the leaf
with their legs and jaws and others go back to the old nest and carry
specially raised larvae to this region. Workers rub the larvae back and
forth over the joints of the leaf, using them as a source of silk. With the
silk secreted from an opening right below the mouths of the larvae, the
leaves are fastened at the required locations. That is, the larvae are used
as sewing machines. 27
These larvae, raised for their silks, have larger than average silk
glands, but they may be carried easily because they are smaller in size.
The larvae give all their silk for the needs of the colonies instead of us-
ing them for themselves. Instead of producing silk slowly from their silk
glands, they secrete silk in great quantities on a single occasion, and
they do not even try to build their own cocoons. In the remaining por-
tion of their lives, worker ants will do everything the larvae have to do
for them. As is evident, these larvae live only as "silk manufacturers". 28
How the ants could develop such cooperation has never been ex-
plained by scientists. Another unexplained point is how this behaviour
emerged for the first time during this alleged term of evolution. As with
the wings of the insects, the eyes of the vertebrates and other biological
miracles, how such sophisticated and beneficial faculties developed by
evolving from the first living beings is a phenomenon which cannot be

Harun Yahya 55