The evolution
of the peppered moth over
the last two hundred years has been studied in detail. Originally, the vast
majority of peppered moths had light colouration, which effectively camouflaged them against the light-coloured trees and lichens which they rested
upon. However, because of widespread pollution during the Industrial
Revolution inEngland, many of the lichens died out, and the trees that
peppered moths rested on became blackened by soot, causing most of the light-coloured moths, or typica, to die off from predation. At the same time, the
dark-coloured, ormelanic, moths, carbonaria,
flourished because of their ability to hide on the darkened trees
the dramatic change in the
peppered moth's population has remained a subject of much interest and study,
and has led to the coining of the term industrial melanism to
refer to the genetic darkening of species in response to pollutants. As a
result of the relatively simple and easy-to-understand circumstances of the
adaptation, the peppered moth has become a common example used in explaining or
demonstrating natural selection.
In 1924, J.B.S. Haldane calculated, using a simple general selection model, the selective
advantage necessary for the recorded natural evolution of peppered moths, based
on the assumption that in 1848 the frequency of dark-coloured moths was 2%, and
by 1895 it was 95%.
Biston betularia f. carbonaria, the black-bodied peppered moth.
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