Creation Spotlight
Butterflies -The Miracle Of Metamorphosis
One
of the most amazing things in God's Creation is the everyday miracle of
the metamorphosis of insects. The word metamorphosis
simply means great change and great change is indeed
what happens as caterpillars change into butterflies.
The design and complexity of metamorphosis is best illustrated in the
Monarch butterfly. The life cycle of a Monarch starts
when the mother Monarch lays her egg on the milkweed
plant. The almost microscopic egg matures in three
days and an incredibly tiny caterpillar emerges, the
larva stage of its development. The tiny caterpillar
is now little more than an eating machine consuming
more then its own weight in food every day. After
three weeks the caterpillar grows to its full size
and then searches for a place to attach itself to as it
turns itself into a Monarch Butterfly chrysalis, the
pupa stage in its development. It attaches itself to
a solid surface and then covers itself with a liquid
that comes right out of its body. In only two minutes
it transforms from caterpillar to chrysalis and here
is where the amazing change begins. For the first
thing that the caterpillar does inside its chrysalis
is to release chemicals stored in its body and
dissolve itself into a liquidy mush. Note: Butterflies
come out of chrysalises and moths come out of
cocoons.
Out of this liquidy mush the body, head, wings and internal organs are
formed. In only 8 days a full size Monarch butterfly
emerges. The question that has intrigued humanity for
centuries is this, how does the mush organize itself
into the incredible complexity that is a butterfly? For the caterpillar
mush is truly mush. There is no brain or apparent
pattern in the mush, but obviously there is one for
all Monarch caterpillars turn into Monarch butterflies.
Entomologists have studied this mystery for years,
but have no answers as to how it happens.
The transformation from caterpillar to butterfly is only part of the
amazing story of the Monarch. Most Monarchs are born
in the northern United States or Canada, but they can
then migrate up to 3000 miles to spend the winter in
Mexico. What is amazing about this migration is that
butterflies never meet their parents, but they are
able to fly to the same tree in Mexico their parents or
grandparents wintered at the year before. There have
even been documented cases where it has taken three
generations of butterflies to complete the round trip. How
they are able to find the same tree is another of the
mysteries of the Monarch butterfly.
Monarch butterflies are one of the best examples of design in God's
Creation, for none of the stages of
caterpillar/butterfly development occur by chance,
the central principle of the religion of evolutionism. The facts show
that God programmed every stage of the
caterpillar/butterfly life cycle. If there were no
other evidence of design in God's Creation than caterpillars and
butterflies, this alone would be enough to show the
fact of His design in His Creation.
"And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl (the Hebrew word for fowl includes all flying creatures) that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven."
Genesis 1:20
