Wednesday, September 14, 2011
According to the Undiscovery Institute:
Throughout history, butterflies have fascinated artists and philosophers, scientists and schoolchildren with their mystery and beauty.According to scientists:
In the new Illustra Media film Metamorphosis you can explore their remarkable world as few ever have before. Spectacular photography, computer animation and magnetic resonance imaging open once hidden doors to every stage of a butterfly's life-cycle. From an egg the size of a pinhead to a magnificent flying insect, it is a transformation so incredible that biologists have called it "butterfly magic."
How did these extraordinary creatures come into being? Are they the products of a blind, undirected process? Or were they intelligently designed?
A single gene in a caterpillar virus sends its victims running for the treetops, where they die and their bodies liquefy, sending an ooze of virus particles on their brothers and sisters below.The "Designer" seems to like the horrific as much as the beautiful.
This species of baculovirus infects only gypsy moth caterpillars, essentially turning them into zombies. It stops the caterpillars from molting and sends them up into the tree leaves during the day (a behavior they normally save for the cover of darkness), where they die among the leaves as they wait to molt.
"They die there, and then they melt within hours after they die, and they are dripping virus down onto the leaves below," said study researcher Kelli Hoover, of Pennsylvania State University.