Darwin's Madagascan Hawk Moth Prediction

Abstract

It started on a quiet day in January 1862 with the arrival of a parcel addressed to Charles Darwin from Robert Bateman. The package contained several orchid specimens needed by Darwin for his research on insect pollination of orchids, including one that took Darwin by surprise. It was the “astounding” Angraecum sesquipedale Thouars, a large orchid with a nectary one foot long! Darwin thought, “what insect could suck it?” (Burkhardt & Smith 1985). And so began a forty-year story that illustrated the power of evolution by natural selection, created a controversy regarding creation, and predicted the existence of a “gigantic moth.”

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