Page 80 - The Miracle in the Ant

Secret of Blue Butterflies

In 1979, the large blue butterfly died out from its last breeding
sites in England. Researchers who studied were not able to find out
for a long time why the butterfly disappeared as there seemed to
be plenty of the right habitat (rough grassland), with lots of the
wild thyme plants on which the butterfly lays its eggs. Actually, the
secret was hidden in the amazing life cycle of the butterfly.
After the caterpillars hatch, they feed on thyme for about three
weeks. Then they drop to the ground and give out a liquid that is
attractive to red ants. When a red ant appears, the caterpillar rears
up and swells the skin behind its head, tricking the ant into think-
ing it is one of its own grubs. The ant carries the caterpillar back
to its nest, and it lives in the nest for almost a year, feeding on the
ant grubs and spending the winter in hibernation. In spring, it
makes a silk cocoon. While inside the cocoon, it slowly changes in-
to an adult butterfly, before finally leaving the nest in midsummer.
The discovery of this parasitism has eliminated the shroud of se-
crecy over the extinction of the butterfly species. Due to an eco-
logical change in the region, the red ants had moved away and the
caterpillars that hatched there were killed by other ant species,
which were not fooled by them. 49
Now, the questions to be answered are the following: Could this
co-existence have been formed by luck? How does the butterfly –
as a caterpillar, which is not even an adult butterfly yet – know how
to fool an ant? How have the organs come into being which make
it possible for it to look like an ant when inflating its back? Since
evolutionists do not accept conscious creation, they would argue
that these organs have emerged by coincidence. Yet no coincidence
can result in such a perfect likeness. It is impossible for this simi-
larity to have formed in time in stages, because a caterpillar which
has not yet acquired this likeness would be hunted down by the
ants and would not be able to survive. Since it is impossible for the
caterpillar to give shape to itself consciously, the only answer is
that this animal was given its shape and made to resemble the ant
by a Creating Will, that is, Allah.

Kar›nca Mucizesi
80 THE MIRACLE IN THE ANT