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Name : Wallace ’s sphinx moth ( Xanthopan praedicta )
Where it ’s found : Lowlands of Madagascar
Wallace’s sphinx moth.
What it eats : Nectar of Darwin ’s orchidaceous plant ( Angraecum sesquipedale )
Why it ’s awesome : In 1862 , Charles Darwin received a Madagascan orchidaceous plant in the post . The blossom had an inordinately long ambrosia tube , called a honey gland , measure 1 foot ( 30 centimeters ) in length . Ina letter to a admirer , he described the orchid as " staggering " and wondered what pollinator might be capable to feed on the nectar . " Good Heavens what insect can suck it , " he wrote . A duet of days subsequently , in another letter to the same ally , he gave a more specific prognostication : " what a proboscis the moth that sucks it must have ! "
While Darwin predicted that the orchidaceous plant would be pollinated by a long - tongue moth , when naturalist Alfred Russel Wallacedescribed the orchidin 1867 , he say some of the large species from the the Sphingidae kinfolk of moths ( known as sphinx moths or hawk moths ) had proboscis almost as long as the nectary ofAngraecum sesquipedale .
Madagascan sphinx moth,Xanthopan morganii.
The two naturalists were proved right when such a long - tongued moth was found in Madagascar . It wasdescribed in 1903as a subspecies of the Morgan ’s sphinx moth(Xanthopan morganii ) and given the scientific nameX. m. praedicta . It was n’t until the nineties thatthe pollinationpredicted by Darwin and Wallace was observed and photograph .
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Darwin’s orchidAngraecum sesquipedale.
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More recently , the moth was determined to have thelongest insect tongue . And ataxonomic studypublished in 2021 conclude that the insect should be classify as its own metal money and was namedXanthopan praedicta .
" guess my excitement in 2019 when I wind off the proboscis of a Wallace ’s sphinx moth that had arrived on the balcony of a inquiry post in Madagascar!“David Lees , curator of moths at the Natural History Museum in London and co - author of the 2021 study , told Live Science in an email . " Its 28.5 - centimeter - retentive [ 11.2 column inch ] proboscis turned out to be the longest yet immortalise for any dirt ball , allow alone hawk moth . "
