Rain Check

But even what we consider a light rain might feel like being pelted by bowling balls to moths and butterflies. So how do these delicate creatures survive? Our loving Creator didn’t leave them to wing it—he engineered their wings with special rain-resistant protection.

The surface of a butterfly or moth’s wings is superhydrophobic, meaning the wings are covered in micro-bumps and wax. When researchers captured high-speed pictures of water droplets hitting moth wings, they discovered that the wing’s waxy coating causes the water to spread out. The tiny bumps then break up the drops so they can scatter into smaller beads.

Superhydrophobic (water-repellent) structures also appear on dragonfly wings, plant leaves, and even some bird feathers.
Photo credit: Georgios Liakopoulos, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The waxy layer cuts water contact time by 70%. Without it, water droplets would linger on the wings, possibly wicking heat from the insect’s muscles, which need to be warm enough for the insect to fly.

This superhydrophobic defense system could help us improve water-repellent sprays for clothes and shoes.

Such a brilliant, sophisticated design certainly flies in the face of random chance evolution. But we expect to see brilliant designs in creation because Genesis reveals a brilliant Creator—one who cares about even the little things, like raindrops and insect wings.

This article is from Answers magazine, July–September, 2024, p. 24.