A new paper published in the Royal Society ’s Biology Letters
journal, shows that early experimental studies of the peppered
moth , as taught to many American high school students, are
“completely correct,” co-author James Mallet , Distinguished
Lecturer on Organismic and Evolutionary Biology , said. The
research is particularly noteworthy, Mallet said, because it
settles a decade-long controversy about whether the moths are a
good example of natural selection at work. Though the moths are
typically a mottled black-and-white color, scientists in England
at the time of Queen Victoria began seeing increased numbers of
all-black moths following the start of the Industrial Revolution
. Studies later showed that the moths had benefited from the
black color because they were better able to camouflage
themselves against the trunks of soot-stained trees. Later
research also showed that, as air quality improved, the moths’
evolution reversed course, and the number of black insects fell
dramatically. Despite decades of