148 Self and the Phenomenon of Life
b2726 Self and the Phenomenon of Life: A Biologist Examines Life from Molecules to Humanity “9x6”use a unique “dance” language to convey information about the direc-
tion and distance of the source of nectar. Ants are able to communicate
with pheromones, chemicals they excrete that provoke a stereotyped
response from other ants. Insects also use a combination of inborn abil-
ity and learning. Thus, honeybees employ the sun and polarized light in
their navigation, while using their internal clock to estimate the change
in sun angle. Ants have been shown to learn to find food by going through
a maze, after repeated trial and error.
Shore-dwelling sand fleas have a propensity to jump to the sea
along the coastline. When carried inland, those living on the west cost
of Italy will jump to the west, in the direction of the ocean. Interestingly
enough, when transported to the east coast, the same animals still jump
to the west, in this instance away from the ocean, jeopardizing their
survival.^16
One of the most intriguing phenomena in nature has been the
migration of North American monarch butterflies. Each year these
insects fly 4,000 kilometers from Canada to winter in Mexico, where they
mate, and return when the weather gets warm. Not only are they able to
land in the same spots year after year, the time needed for a round-trip
journey exceeds the lifetime of a butterfly. It takes one generation to fly
south and three to fly north. How the geographic information is encoded
and transmitted over multi-generations remains a mystery. Most likely
the process involves epigenetics as well as genetics, along with environ-
mental cues such as the Earth’s magnetic field and the orientation of
sunlight.^17
During mating time each female squid lays thousands of egg-
capsules. Upon contact with these egg masses, a male squid’s behavior
changes abruptly, becoming extremely aggressive and ready to fight with
other males to pair with the fertile female. Thus, the most dominant
male gains the greatest number of copulations, and females benefit by
obtaining sperm from the most vigorous competitor. The active factor in
the egg capsules is a protein contact-pheromone termed Loligo b-MSP.
The synthetic recombinant protein alone (in the absence of the eggs or
the females) is capable of inducing similar male behavior.^18