Butterflies That Have a Knowledge of Physics

The appearance of butterflies is admirable. These creatures, which with their colorful wings and elegant flight are like living ornaments, are some of the sources of beauty that Allah creates for us. However, a marvelous appearance is certainly not the only feature of butterflies. These short-lived creatures sometimes do calculations such as a specialist would do. For example, like the moths which we discussed earlier, the body heat of a butterfly has to be at a certain temperature in order for it to fly. Let's see what butterflies do to solve this problem.

The colias butterfly cannot fly when its body temperature is below 28oC (83oF). In such cases the butterfly opens its wings to expose its upper side to the sun and to soak up the sun's rays at the correct angle. If its body temperature rises as high as 40oC (104oF), it rotates by 90 degrees and thus receives the sun's rays horizontally. With this behavior the butterfly absorbs as little heat through the wings as possible and its body temperature decreases.

Besides that, this butterfly species has small dark spots on its wings. These spots, the function of which is to maintain a higher body temperature, are not located just anywhere. They are close to the points that most need to be warm. As a result of this particular creation, heat transmission from these spots, which warm up quickly, to other parts of the body is facilitated since the distance that needs to be covered to transmit heat is shortened.

Another butterfly species employs a similar method to increase its body temperature. You all know what a lens is. Some are used to produce enlarged images whereas some others are used to produce smaller images of objects. For example glasses consist of a pair of lenses. Beside this function, a lens angled correctly toward the sun can concentrate the sun's rays on a certain spot. Using this method it is possible even to light a fire. The pieris, another butterfly species, angles its wings toward the sun so that all rays are concentrated on certain parts of its body that most need to be warm, in a similar way as a lens functions.

These butterflies have certainly not been trained in physics or any other field. They cannot know about the features of a lens. They do not know which angle would receive the greatest amount of heat. Allah, Who watches over and protects all things, inspires in butterflies what they should do to regulate their body temperature. As Allah reminds us in the Qur’an: