Caterpillars' Diet Choices

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The diamondback caterpillar is the number one pest of plants in the cabbage family. But scientists are finding that this caterpillar isn't as guilty of causing low yields in cabbage family plots as has been thought.

It turns out, that given a choice between a cabbage field which is doing very well and a field next door which is not doing so well, the diamondback caterpillar will prefer to munch on the less healthy field where yields are already decreased. That might seem like poor judgement on the part of the caterpillar. But scientists have only recently learned what the caterpillar seems to have known all along.

The caterpillar's primary predator is a parasite wasp. But this wasp looks for its meals in healthy cabbage fields. So while the wasp is looking for caterpillars in healthy fields, the caterpillars are next door in the field that isn't doing quite so well. This means that the solution to caterpillar problems on cabbage family plants is not more insecticide, but healthier plants.

The logical question is, how did the caterpillars figure out how to outsmart the wasps? The obvious answer is that their Creator, Who knows all about wasps and caterpillars, built this wisdom into the caterpillars.