God has an Enemy - Cremastocheilus Beetle

Written by Ron McCluskey


God has an enemy - Cremastocheilus Beetle ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Inrepparttar Americas a little brown or black beetle lives that most of us would not even notice. In fact, most of you would probably just step on it if you came across it. But, this little beetle has a fascinating story.

This beetle happens to be a parasite. We usually think of a parasite as something that lives in or on us and makes us sick or itch. But this beetle is a parasite on ants!

Its name is Cremastocheilus (Kree-mast-oh-kyle'-us), sometimes calledrepparttar 127016 anteater scarab and is nothing special to look at. But, it has an incredible ability. It is able to changerepparttar 127017 way it smells.

If you are familiar with ants, then you know that they are able to recognize others in their colonies with their marvelous sense of smell. They cannot do it by sight, because they cannot see very well. In fact, some ants are totally blind. So, when two ants meet, they will strokerepparttar 127018 other ant with their antennae collecting minute amounts of chemicals in special receptors that allow them to identify ifrepparttar 127019 other ant is friend or foe.

Incredibly,repparttar 127020 Cremastocheilus beetle can changerepparttar 127021 way it smells. When it is time forrepparttar 127022 female beetle to lay her eggs, she will go to an ant nest and walk up torepparttar 127023 entrance. She then changesrepparttar 127024 way she smells so thatrepparttar 127025 ants will think that she is an ant from that colony.

Once she has passedrepparttar 127026 guards, she makes her way down intorepparttar 127027 ant nest and findsrepparttar 127028 nursery. She then lays her eggs in withrepparttar 127029 ant eggs.

Whenrepparttar 127030 baby beetle hatches, it smells like a baby ant. But, it does not eat what baby ants eat. It eats baby ants! The ants take care of it anyway, because to them it smells right.

Whenrepparttar 127031 baby beetle gets big enough, it will pupate and then become an adult. As an adult, it leavesrepparttar 127032 ant nest to find another adult beetle to mate with. The female will then find another ant nest and startrepparttar 127033 cycle over again.

God has a GREAT Imagination - Beetles

Written by Ron McCluskey


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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Tracking God News Looking forrepparttar character and personality of God in His creation. Issue # 1 Editor: Ron McCluskey mailto:editor@trackinggod.com

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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Tracking God's Imagination ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A famous entomologist was once asked what he had learned from his lifelong study of insects. He replied, "God has an inordinate fondness for beetles." That would seem to be true, because at last count, scientists have named over 400,000 species of them. To give you an idea of how many that is, there are about 15,000 species of birds inrepparttar 127018 world. In fact, if you lined up all species of life including bacteria, plants, animals, worms and insects every fifth one would be a beetle! If we were to try to come up with designs for different types of beetles, most of us could come up with 25 different designs. Some of us could probably figure out a few hundred. But, can you imaginerepparttar 127019 type of intelligence that it takes to design over 400,000 variations on a theme? And each of them is perfect. They have all their parts working. No matter how great our imagination, we would probably never think about creating a beetle with a flame thrower in it, but that is what God did! There is a small group of beetles called bombardier beetles. They are nothing special to look at, but God put a very special protective mechanism in them. They have a built in flame thrower inrepparttar 127020 back end of these beetles. They can aim it in any direction and fire it at will. It shoots caustic chemicals at any attacker that are boiling temperature. It can shoot 20 bursts a second. The mechanism that shoots these hot chemicals is a marvel of design. There is a small chamber that holdsrepparttar 127021 chemicals that will eventually explode. Whenrepparttar 127022 beetle feels threatened, that chamber will contract causing a small amount of these chemicals to enter a second chamber. In that chamber, there are chemicals which cause an explosion. Atrepparttar 127023 tip ofrepparttar 127024 abdomen, there is a small turret which can be pointed in any direction. Whenrepparttar 127025 chemicals exploderepparttar 127026 burst through this small turret. Once, many years ago, when people still traveled by wood burning trains, there were two entomologists traveling inrepparttar 127027 southern United States. Whenrepparttar 127028 train stopped to take on water, these men went out into a field to collect insects. Whenrepparttar 127029 train whistle blew, one ofrepparttar 127030 men had an insect clutched tightly in each hand. Byrepparttar 127031 time he got back torepparttar 127032 train, it was moving. With his hands full, he could not grab ontorepparttar 127033 hand rail and pull himself ontorepparttar 127034 train. So, without thinking, he popped one ofrepparttar 127035 insects into his mouth. It happened to be a bombardier beetle. He later wrote in his journal that he could sympathize with any predator that tried to eat this small insect because he immediately had a very hot burning sensation in his mouth! It is amazing to me that God would expendrepparttar 127036 effort and planning necessary to create these tiny creatures. They are perfect examples of miniaturization. Their tiny parts all fitted together to make them not only survive, but thrive. It is evident that there was a lot of loving attention given to them.

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