Doug Velting
Let’s face it, insects don’t seem to be the smartest creatures on the planet; after all, they only have tiny brains. And with their compound eyes, they don’t see very well. However, God created them to do amazing things.
For example: how do they navigate?
How do they find point B traveling from point A? Let’s take a close look at how God has equipped the eastern monarch butterfly to migrate from the eastern United States and Canada to Mexico.
Every year millions of monarch butterflies migrate two to three thousand miles between their home range and Mexico. Because it takes up to three generations to make this long migration route and back, these butterflies will lay their eggs somewhere en route, which then hatch into their larval and pupal stages. Monarch butterfly larvae only eat the leaves of the milkweed plant and thus rely on the presence of this plant all along the migration route.
God has programmed each generation of butterfly to know in what direction they need to travel. So if a butterfly is born in Michigan near the end of the summer, it knows to migrate southwest toward Mexico, and its offspring is equally born knowing its position on the route so it can continue on a correct course.
It is amazing to realize that while monarch butterflies are found across a home range spanning hundreds of thousands of square miles during the summer, they collect in only small areas of the pine forests of Mexico during their overwintering hibernation. Studies have shown that often these butterflies will even find the same tree that their ancestors departed from generations before.
Monarchs navigate using a sun compass, which involves a complex method of determining the sun’s movement from east to west and the butterfly’s current position. To use the sun to know what direction to travel, the monarch needs to know its position to true north, which is no easy task since the position of the sun is both throughout the day and also with latitude and by season. Just to handle the daily movements of the sun while flying south, these butterflies must steer to the right of the sun in the early morning, toward the sun at midday, and to the left of the sun in the late afternoon.
The monarch butterfly relies primarily on determining the angle between due north and the sun’s vector on the horizontal plane. This angle of the sun moves throughout the day, and the butterflies need to keep track of what part of the day it is currently. This requires an internal clock. To make this even more difficult, the sun’s angle differs based on whether it’s fall in Michigan or spring in Texas. Therefore the calculations vary based on where the butterfly is currently at as well as the season.
The monarch butterfly also uses a type of magnetic compass. Researchers have found magnetite, a highly magnetic iron oxide mineral, in the bodies of these butterflies. And monarchs aren’t the only creatures with this substance. Many major families of birds and mammals, as well as the spiny lobster, moths, and even termites all have this ability built into them. While researchers now know this is how animals are able to detect the magnetic field to determine their direction, how these animals got magnetite in their bodies in the first place is still a mystery.
It would be foolish to believe that the ability of the monarch butterfly to migrate in such a complicated yearly cycle could develop by evolutionary means. At the same time, it makes perfectly good sense to trust that an all-powerful, all-knowing Creator God provided this for even such small creatures.
For thou art great, and does wonderous things: thou art God alone.
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