The Poisonous Butterfly

Wording of this Handout:

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A butterfly called the monarch has been designed to eat poison!

Amazing though this may sound, it is true.

When the monarch is a caterpillar it eats only a certain kind of plant - the milkweeds and some creepers. Apart from one kind of beetle, the butterfly is the only creature that eats them, because they are so poisonous.

But the monarch grub is not harmed by the poison. Instead, it stores the poison in its body as a protection. If a bird tries to eat the grub it is very sick. The bird doesn't forget this, so it leaves all similar grubs alone!

Another amazing thing about the monarch caterpillar is the way it feeds.

As it grows, it starts to take bigger bites into the milkweed leaves, and it doesn't like all the sap that comes out. . . so it crawls down the leaf to where it is attached to the stem and nips into the 'pipeline'. This lets the sap out, then it crawls back up to the leaf and carries on eating.

Who taught the caterpillar about sap pressure? Who taught the monarch the wisdom to know about milkweed poison?

The God who created the butterfly and the plant put the wisdom into the things He created.