アメリカ自然史博物館のインスタグラム(amnh) - 1月27日 15時06分

Charles Darwin first saw the Angraecum sesquipedale orchid from Madagascar in 1862. Its foot-long green throat holds nectar, but only at its very tip. "Astounding," Darwin wrote of this strange adaptation. "What insect could suck it?" He predicted that Madagascar must be home to an insect with an incredibly long feeding tube, or proboscis—but no such insect was discovered during his lifetime. Decades after his death, his insight was confirmed. A naturalist in Madagascar discovered the giant hawk moth (Xanthopan morganii praedicta), which hovers like a hummingbird as its long, whip-like proboscis probes for the distant nectar. The moth's scientific name honors the prediction of the scientist who never saw it, but whose theory told him that it must exist.
Photo 1: sunoochi, flickr
Photo 2: Xanthopan morgani [Natural History Museum of London]

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