During the early decades of the Industrial Revolution in England, the countryside between London and Manchester became blanketed with soot from the new coal-burning factories. Many of the light-bodied lichens died from sulphur dioxide emissions, and the trees became darkened.

Most of the peppered moths collected in the early 1800s were the light form. The black color of the dark form was due to a mutation in the DNA of the light-colored form. Once this mutation was present, the dark-colored moths would produce offspring with dark-colored wings.

The case of the peppered moth (Biston betularia) is a classic example of evolution through directional selection (selection favoring extreme phenotypes). The allele (version of the gene) for dark body color is dominant, which means that a moth possessing at least one such allele will have a dark body.

While the typical peppered moth is light, and is given the name typica, some moths have dark, almost black, bodies. These moths are given the name carbonaria. Others are somewhere in the middle and have many more dark spots than the light peppered moth. This middle color (or morph) is called insularia.

In an iconic evolutionary case study, a black form of the peppered moth rapidly took over in industrial parts of the UK during the 1800s, as soot blackened the tree trunks and walls of its habitat. Now, researchers from the University of Liverpool have pinpointed the genetic change that caused this adaptation.

black moth

The moth thought it was just caught up in the top branches of an elm. He never did reach the star, but he went right on trying, night after night, and when he was a very, very old moth he began to think that he really had reached the star and he went around saying so.

The peppered moth Biston betularia has long provided one of the best examples of evolution in action.

Pollution may act as a selective pressure for speciation. It can cause genetic drift of alleles by killing a large number of individual in a population. This might lead to speciation. Again pollution can confine a certain population to a particular geographical area due to niche reduction.

Industrial melanism

Natural selection is a process where organisms that are better adapted to an environment will survive and reproduce. This means that the advantageous alleles of this variant organism are passed on to offspring. Over many generations, the process of natural selection leads to evolution occurring.

The color of an animal can determine whether it lives or dies. The particular colors on an animals are determined partly by the genes its gets from its parents. That means that genes that hide animals can spread thanks to natural selection, leading to the evolution of exquisite camouflage.

Natural selection requires heritable variation in a given trait, and differential survival and reproduction associated with possession of that trait. Examples of natural selection are well-documented, both by observation and through the fossil record.

Natural selection is a process that causes heritable traits that are helpful for survival and reproduction to become more common, and harmful traits to become more rare. This occurs because organisms with advantageous traits pass on more copies of these heritable traits to the next generation.

In fact, it is so simple that it can be broken down into five basic steps, abbreviated here as VISTA: Variation, Inheritance, Selection, Time and Adaptation.

Tutt suggested that the peppered moths were an example of natural selection. He recognized that the camouflage of the light moth no longer worked in the dark forest. Dark moths live longer in a dark forest, so they had more time to breed. All living things respond to natural selection.

carbonaria

Predators of the peppered moth include flycatchers, nuthatches, and the European robin. Like most moths, peppered moths avoid predators that hunt in the daylight by flying at night and resting during the day.

Birds and bats are the most commonly recorded predators of peppered moths, which means the moth can be hunted during the day and at night. Birds will frequently attack when the moths are at rest against a tree, which is why it is so crucial that the insect blends into its surroundings.

about 8-9 months

Moths that can blend into their surroundings during rest have a distinct advantage for survival from predation, as exhibited by the peppered moth. This adaptation is known as camouflage. Another moth adaptation is mimicry, which confuses or frightens off predators.

Small white moths, often called lawn moths, are a common sight in lawns and grasses throughout North America. The moths themselves don’t cause a great deal of damage to grass and other plants, but their larvae do. In larval form, these moths are small worms or caterpillars that collectively are called sod webworms.

He conducted a series of observations, fieldwork and aviary experiments, and found that his data fit his predictions: black moths were becoming more abundant because they were being better-camouflaged and predated less by birds in soot-covered areas compared to their newly exposed and vulnerable white counterparts.

The number of light moths (red) decreased over the 10 year period, and the number of dark moths increased. These moths live in an area where the tree bark is dark. In this lab, you will simulate how predators locate prey in different environments.

What was causing the different colors in the moths? The dark color was caused by a mutation in the DNA of a single moth, and the mutated gene had been passed to all its offspring.

Peppered moths spend their winter in a cocoon or pupa so that they can stay alive during this cold season.

Many moths spend the winter as caterpillars hibernating through vegetation, although some don’t emerge to feed during mild periods. Other species, such as Peregrines, spend the winter as pupae, hidden in hot underground cocoons where they are protected from the cold.

Like most insects, moths can’t naturally survive freezing temperatures. When it starts to get cold in winter, moths have to seek shelter they’ll die out. Yes, even though moths can’t survive winter, they may somehow still find ways to infest your home.

200 eggs

As its name suggests, the European Pepper Moth, Duponchelia fovealis, is a moth that is native to southern Europe and Northern Africa. It was first found in North America in 2004 in San Diego County, CA, and was subsequently eradicated. It was discovered again in 2010, and has since been found in 15 states.

It is on the wing between May and August in parks and gardens, woodland, scrub and hedgerows. The twig-like caterpillars feed on the leaves of a variety of trees and shrubs, including silver birch, oak, bramble and hawthorn.

The peppered moth is a moth that flies between May and August. Its caterpillars can be found from August. They pupate in October and then spend the winter under the ground. The peppered moth’s habitat is made up of woods, meadows, gardens and parks.