Coevolution of the Morgan’s Sphinx moth and Darwin’s Orchid By: Brittany Brinkley Nick LaFave’s 1 st block Environmental Science
Transcript
Slide 1
Slide 2
Coevolution of the Morgans Sphinx moth and Darwins Orchid By:
Brittany Brinkley Nick LaFaves 1 st block Environmental
Science
Slide 3
The Morgans Sphinx Moth This odd moth has a tongue of nearly 12
inches long which is more than triple the length of its body. While
this is impressive and wildly interesting, one might wonder why a
moth would need such a long tongue. The answer is simple- It has
adapted to its main food source, Darwins Orchid.
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Darwins Orchid The Darwins Orchid stores its pollen at the
bottom of a really long tube beginning at the opening of the
petals. Because of this, the only animal able to collect its pollen
is the Morgans Sphinx moth. Said pollination is necessary for both
the Orchid to reproduce and for the moth to eat. The two species
enjoy a relationship of mutualism.
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A Need For Coevolution Over time, the stems of the Darwins
Orchid grew longer. This was unfortunate for the Morgans Sphinx
moth because only moths with longer tongues that the rest could
survive Only the Orchids that were pollinated could reproduce.
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How Coevolution Happened As the moths with shorter tongues died
of starvation, only those moths with long tongues were able to
survive and reproduce. So, as the orchid tubes got longer, the moth
tongues got longer so that both species could still receive the
basics of life through their mutualistic relationship.