There are over 12,000 kinds of ants throughout the world, all extremely interesting. The one we will learn about today, the leaf-cutting ant, is fascinating in many ways. Some of their colonies in Central and South America contain a million ants or more, and tons of soil are often dug by them while making their large nests with many rooms.
This ant is not interested in seeds, fruit or any other food except the food it makes in its own home from pieces of green leaves, farmed and tended by them very carefully. Just getting these leaf pieces to the nest is a big project.
First, scouts have the duty of finding a tree with the right kind of leaves and then marking out a trail to the tree with special odors. In ways provided by their Creator, they pass the word when this is accomplished. Then workers, which have sharp mandibles like the teeth of a saw, go to that particular tree. Each selects a suitable leaf and cuts out sections much larger than themselves. These pieces of leaves are passed, one by one, to other workers which lift them up over their heads, like a parasol, to carry them. Each worker carrying a piece joins hundreds of others walking in a single line back to the nest over the marked trail. The trail may be 400 or 500 feet long (which would be like a person walking 20 miles with a heavy load). Usually they make this round-trip several times a night!
At certain times, pesky flies, that want to lay eggs in the carrier ant’s body while it is busy with its load, land on the piece of leaf, waiting for an opportunity to attack. But the ants prepare for this by sending along a tiny sister ant who hops aboard the leaf after it has been hoisted up, scurrying all over it on the way to the nest, to chase away any flies that show up. On arrival, she hops down and returns to the tree to make another trip with another carrier ant.
We might ask, Who taught these ants such amazing skills? As the Bible verse above tells us, the Lord God created the ants, just as He did all living things, and He gave each species different instincts that often amaze us. King David, in thinking about these wonderful provisions, wrote, “The works of the Lord are great, sought out of all them that have pleasure therein. His work is honorable and glorious. . . . He hath made His wonderful works to be remembered” (Psalm 111:24).
When we look at all the wonderful things about us, let us always remember who it is that has made them.
(to be continued)
NOVEMBER 22, 1998
ML-11/22/1998