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John Clayton
The United States Department of Agriculture has learned that plants
"scream" chemically when attacked by caterpillars. Corn
plants, for example, release a chemical signal when mixed with
the saliva of the caterpillar. This signal attracts wasps which
lay their eggs in the caterpillar, eventually killing the caterpillar
and saving the plant. If the leaf is cut or injured in some other
way, the chemical signal is not emitted. Only when the caterpillar
saliva mixes with the damaged portion of the leaf is the signal
given off.
Because of this elaborate system, a wasp can seek out caterpillars
in a huge corn field and stop large scale damage. James Tumlinson,
of the USDA says soybeans and cotton plants have a similar defense
against pests. We are only beginning to understand how many natural
protective mechanisms are built into the environment to help us
and protect us. Some pesticides may kill the wasps and not the
caterpillars, defeating the system designed to protect the plants.
There is much to learn about the design of living things--a design
so complex that we maintain it cannot be a product of chance.
This article taken from: Does God Exist?, May/June 1996
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