Assaulting Peppered Moth Evolution
Despite the fact that the iconic status of the peppered moth has been discredited as a proof of evolution, the faithful still attempt to persuade us that it is still evidence anyway. Something that the brilliant observant scientists of the past failed to brilliantly observe is the behavior of the peppered moths. Not only does evolution fail as an explanation of variation, it hinders explanations because even more questions are raised.
Read the rest of "Peppered Moths Without Evolution", here.A new study shows that scientific research on moth camouflage does not require evolutionary theory.Evolutionary biologists from Seoul, South Korea filmed moths resting on tree trunks. According to PhysOrg, they were trying to understand how moths in the wild orient themselves on the bark for greatest camouflage. That’s a very different question than the ones asked by Kettlewell, Majerus and other past researchers who were looking for natural selection of peppered moths. In those old studies, camouflage was a happenstance, not a behavior within the moth. The opening paragraph referred to the old ideas as if preparing to dismiss them:Moths are iconic examples of camouflage. Their wing coloration and patterns areshaped by natural selection to match the patterns of natural substrates, such as a tree bark or leaves, on which the moths rest. But, according to recent findings, the match in the appearance was not all in their invisibility… Despite a long history of research on these iconic insects, whether mothsbehave in a way to increase their invisibility has not been determined.