In the living world too, we shall expect to find complex and sophisticated design wherever we are dealing with the end-products of a long, asymmetric arms race in which advances on one side have always been matched, on a one-to-one, point-for-point basis, by equally successful antidotes (as opposed to competitors) on the other. This is conspicuously true of the arms races between predators and their prey, and, perhaps even more, of arms races between parasites and hosts. The electronic and acoustic weapons systems of bats, which we discuss in the Natural Design narrative, have all the finely tuned sophistication that we expect from the end-products of a long arms race. Not surprisingly, we can trace this same arms race on the other side. The insects that bats prey upon have a comparable battery of sophisticated electronic and acoustic gear. Some moths even emit bat-like (ultra-) sounds that seem to put the bats off. Almost all animals are either in danger of being eaten by other animals or in danger of failing to eat other animals, and an enormous number of detailed facts about animals makes sense only when we remember that they are the end-products of long and bitter arms races. H. B. Cott, author of the classic book Animal Coloration, put the point well in 1940, in what may be the first use in print of the arms-race analogy in biology:
Before asserting that the deceptive appearance of a grasshopper or butterfly is unnecessarily detailed, we must first ascertain what are the powers of perception and discrimination of the insects' natural enemies. Not to do so is like asserting that the armour of a battle-cruiser is too heavy, or the range of her guns too great, without inquiring into the nature and effectiveness of the enemy's armament. The fact is that in the primeval struggle of the jungle, as in the refinements of civilized warfare, we see in progress a great evolutionary armament race - whose results, for defence, are manifested in such devices as speed, alertness, armour, spinescence, burrowing habits, nocturnal habits, poisonous secretions, nauseous taste, and [camouflage and other kinds of protective coloration]; and for offence, in such counter-attributes as speed, surprise, ambush, allurement, visual acuity, claws, teeth, stings, poison fangs, and [lures]. Just as greater speed in the pursued has developed in relation to increased speed in the pursuer; or defensive armour in relation to aggressive weapons; so the perfection of concealing devices has evolved in response to increased powers of perception.
