The Energy Game in a Dead Moth

The moth moves across the porch, millimeter by millimeter, a brief stage of a longer journey of energy from the core of the sun to the table of the ants. Protons fuse at the center of the sun, releasing energy. The energy diffuses upward, taking several million years to reach the sun's surface, where it is released as heat and light. The light streaks across ninety-three million miles of space, reaching the Earth eight minutes later, where it falls upon the green leaves of plants. The plants store the energy as carbohydrates. A moth stops at a flower of a plant and sips the sugary nectar. It uses the nectar's stored energy for flight. reproduction, and building a body rich with organic compounds. The moth beats its brains out against my porch light and falls dead to the floor, where it is discovered by a scout of a colony of ants. The call is raised: "Food! " Now the rest of the colony arrives, at first in ones and twos, then en masse. A storm of purpose ignites their tiny brains. Humping their backs and fiddling their legs, they have a go at the moth. The moth drifts across the porch floor, taking the packaged energy longer to cross a few feet of painted boards than it took to travel from sun to Earth.

From the sun to the ants that eat it.