Moths in the News: Moths respond to pollution
This is an old news article that comes from the other side of the pond. I actually remember hearing this story in 2009, long before I took any particular interest in moths. It was really interesting to me because I am interested in evolution through natural selection and the time periods over which it can be observed. This story is a case where an environmental factor (industrial air pollution) favored darker coloration for a particular species of moth, and then over time that trend reversed as the air became cleaner.
The moth in question is apparently a relatively common moth in the United Kingdom known as Peppered Moth (Biston betularia). It is from the Geometridae family, which generally have wide wings and lay relatively flat. See the iNaturalist species page here.
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Very interesting. I didn’t know about this—thank you for sharing!
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