Kettlewell

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Peppered moth (Biston betularia) melanic and light form. Moths in the family Geometridae showing relative camouflage of f. cabonaria, the result of industrial melanism
Licensed from Adobe Stock

The Peppered Myth

Open almost any textbook dealing with biological evolution and you’ll probably find photographs of peppered moths resting on tree trunks — illustrating the classic story of natural selection in action. A friend of mine says those photographs are all he remembers about evolution from his undergraduate days. Before the mid-1800s, almost all peppered moths were light-colored, but during the industrial Read More ›

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Peppered moth (Biston betularia)
Peppered moth (Biston betularia)

Second Thoughts about Peppered Moths

Every student of biological evolution learns about peppered moths. The dramatic increase in dark forms of this species during the industrial revolution, and experiments pointing to differential bird predation as the cause, have become the classical story of evolution by natural selection. The same careful scientific approach which established the classical story in the first place, however, has now revealed Read More ›