David Element
Wildlife Photography and Digital Video Images
_________________________________________________________________________Moths
60 – Peppered Moths
PEPPERED MOTH Biston betularia (m) f. typica
PEPPERED
MOTH Biston betularia (m) f. typica
·
The above photographs are of a pale typica form male Peppered
Moth Biston betularia (Geometridae). This night-flying moth is renowned because of the proliferation of a
dark morph, first discovered in 1811 during the industrial revolution. This industrial
melanism, a consequence of a single gene mutation, enabled the dark form to
settle on soot-covered surfaces without being visible to predatory birds as the
pale typica form that would have been well camouflaged on lichen-covered
trees. An account of the study of the typical and carbonaria forms of this moth may be read here: https://learningzone.oumnh.ox.ac.uk/peppered-moth-natural-selection-experiments. In recent years the relative proportion of the
pale form has increased in response to the reduction in use of smoke-generating
carbon-based fuels. A textbook example of natural selection.
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