Page 4 - Amazing Creations Volume Four

Amazing Creations 11

Richard Gunther

How do insects know up from down?
The beetle, pictured below, senses where it is in relation to the
ground and sky, thanks to special cells in its muscles.
A bee can tell whether it is upside down or right side up by the
position of hairs on its neck.
When the bee is the right way up the hairs lie evenly along the back
of its head, but if the bee changes position, the hairs tit away, or lie
unevenly.
The bee calculates the proportion of hairs pressing down.

Grasshoppers have 'strain-guages' on their backs, which relay
information about its position in the air, as it flies.
They also have about 148 receptors on each side of their bodies to
measure tilt and position as they fly.
The hairs on their heads measure wind speed.

If the hairs on a grasshopper's head are covered, it will not try to fly,
even when there is a good breeze blowing.

Seen close up, a hair is a delicate and complex piece of
bio-engineering, on the nanoscale.
It involves a structure, with a
�===::=====::=��
complex system built into it,
and a relay by way -
of neurons ..-:
r .
to a brain. :;;,..,.,,,. ·.
-:-

Without these tiny
structures, most
insects would not be
able to move properly,
which points us to a
Creator, who knew
this right from the start.