#moth

#moth

Madagascar Hawkmoth Has the World's Longest TongueThe Madagascan hawkmoth is now recognized as a new species, and it has the longest tongue of any insect. This species was predicted by Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace before being discovered.In 1862, Darwin speculated that an orchid with a nectar tube of 30 centimeters long can only be pollinated by a moth with a very long tongue. Then, in 1867, Wallace predicted that the moth would be similar to a hawkmoth with a long proboscis, and it can be found in the same place together with the orchid.Wallace wrote, “That such a moth exists in Madagascar may be safely predicted, and naturalists who visit that island should search for it with as much confidence as astronomers searched for the planet Neptune, – and they will be equally successful.”He was proven correct when the moth was finally described by Karl Jordan and Lord Walter Rothschild in 1903. Now, the moth is classified as a new species named Xanthopan praedicta.Image:Minet et al. 2021#moth #hawkmoth #longest #tongue #species

Peppered Moth Caterpillars Can Sense Color Through Their Skin to Match Their Body ColorDifferent animals are known to have camouflage capabilities as their way of living and surviving. They have systems in their bodies that allow perception of color and light aside from their eyes. The peppered moth (Biston betularia) is an example of an insect that does this.Researchers painted the eyes of peppered moth caterpillars to test if they could still adapt the colors of their background, even if they cannot see. These critters changed their colors to that of their respective background colors as if they were not blindfolded in the first place.Amy Eacock, one of the lead authors of the new study and currently a postdoc at the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology, said, "It was completely surprising to me that blindfolded caterpillars are still able to pick a branch that best matches their color. I don’t think my supervisor, Ilik Saccheri, believed me until he saw it by himself.”Image: Arjen van’t Hof, University of Liverpool#caterpillars #moth #skin #color #PepperedMoth