News

The weather has been rather confusing so far this summer, with a heatwave being followed by a dramatic drop in temperature. Unfortunately, our first moth survey coincided with the latter and so we found fewer moths than would be expected this time of year.

However, we were still able to add 5 new species to our campus records, including this beautiful Peppered Moth.

This species is literally taught in schools. It made evolutionary history because during the industrial revolution the animals’ usual colouration of white with black speckles that normally helped the moths camouflage against lichen-covered tree trunks gradually switched to the dark melanistic form in response to the immense environmental pollution, which saw buildings and tree trunks getting darker due to the soot in the air.

When air pollution was brought under control again, the lighter-coloured forms became dominant again as the environment around them recovered.

Thankfully, we found an individual with white wings and black speckles…