Brown-colored weaver ants are less than half-an-inch long, equipped with strong legs and two long antennae protruding below their black eyes. Connected behind the front section of their bodies by a small segment is their main and largest section - the gaster. It contains their stomach and three glands, each of which puts out a special odor on command. One odor is a general alarm for all ants to come quickly, another odor calls for help from nearby workers, and the third odor is used to make a trail-marking smell.
Another ant, smelling either of the first two odors, immediately acts on it. If it’s a general alarm, it hurries back to the soldier ants that guard the colony and then on to others with the message. Meanwhile it has left its own trail-marking scent so that while it spreads the message, these can all hurry to the rescue without waiting to be shown the way. If the call is just for nearby help, then it stops telling others when enough are contacted. None ever refuse to go.
The weaver queen lays thousands of eggs throughout the year. She is much larger than the others and requires lots of food, but never leaves the nest. Certain workers are assigned to feed and care for her, including a continual licking of her body to keep her clean and cool. Other inside workers feed and care for the eggs and the larvae that come from them. Still others are selected for outside work, including the soldiers already mentioned.
Some of the outside workers maintain “dairies” of aphids and other insects which, when gently licked, give off a sweet moisture. When the “milkers’” stomachs are full of this tasty food, they pass it through their mouths to waiting workers who then take it back to the nest for the queen and workers there.
The food of the weaver ants is mostly insects and seeds, and certain members are given the job of finding it and storing some away, just as our opening verse indicates. Sometimes a worker will capture an insect too large to carry, so it passes the word along by one of its special odors, asking for help, which promptly comes. If the prize is still living, they spray it with acid until it no longer resists, then between them they carry it to the nest.
Aren’t these provisions of the wise Creator wonderful to think about? We must conclude that only the Lord God could make such creatures and keep them from the first day of their creation, which turns our thoughts to the Bible verse, “Who is like unto the Lord our God, who dwelleth on high, who humbleth Himself to behold the things that are in heaven, and in the earth!” (Psalm 113:56). That statement includes you. Have you given Him the right place in your life?
JANUARY 29, 1995
ML-01/29/1995