The peppered mothYou must choose the appropriate option in order

to order to explore the theory of natural selection. CAUTION: Beware of predators.

Start Adventure Here!

Choose your habitat

WOODLAND

DESERT

OCEAN CITIES

OOPS! A moth cannot survive in water environments, as they do not have fins and gills.

Try again!

WARNING: Moth is becoming dehydrated and running low on food source. Please Go Back!

Natural Selection

Due to smoke pollution, soot covers the woodlands near by altering the colour of the tree bark from white to black.

This means the white moths are easily seen by predators and eaten.

Black moths become the survival of the fittest and produce more offspring.

This is an example of natural selection. To find out more- CLICK HERE!

What appropriate defence mechanisms will enable the moth to

hide from predators?

CAMOFLAGE

CHEMICAL COMBAT

TRICKERYFLY AWAY

Go Back

• CAUTION: BIRD IS RIGHT BEHIND YOU!

Yes a moth can fly away, but is this the best option? A bird can always just fly after the

moth.

Does a moth have this defence mechanism?

• A moth doesn’t have this defence mechanism.

What else could it be?

Camouflage allows the white moths to hide against

the white bark of trees. More offspring is produced and there is an abundance of white moths. The black

moths are eaten predators.Why would this be?

UNABLE TO CAMOUFLAGE

EASILY SPOTTED

THE BLACK MOTHS DIDN’T PRODUCE ENOUGH OFFSPRING

WHITE MOTHS HAVE A FASTER REPRODUCTION RATE THAN

BLACK MOTHS

Revisit the previous slide.

The rate of the offspring didn’t contribute to why black moths were eaten by predators.

• The black moths did produce enough offspring, but due to their high visibility against the white bark, they were eaten by predators. Good try!

• Click here to go back.

The black moth was unable to camouflage on the white bark,

therefore they were easily spotted and eaten by predators.

OH NO! A chemical plant was built near by and the trees began to

turn black due to smoke pollution. What will happen?

NOTHING

THE WHITE MOTH POPULATION WILL

INCREASE

MORE BLACK MOTH

OFFSPRING ARE PRODUCED

PREDATORS WILL EAT THE WHITE

MOTHS

Due to smoke pollution, soot covers the woodlands near by altering the colour of the tree bark from white to black.

This means the white moths are easily seen by predators and eaten.

Black moths become the survival of the fittest and produce more offspring.

This is an example of natural selection.

• Try Again!• The black and white moths produce the same

number of offspring. Although, the number of white moths is reducing, why would this be?

OOPS! Try Again!

The white moth population will actually decrease as they are unable to camouflage to their surrounding areas which will result in a decrease of offspring produced.

Are you sure?

• The population of the white moth will decrease, whereas the black moth population will increase.

Go Back!

FACTS

SUMMARY

MORE EXAMPLES

MOVE ON TO NEXT

ACTIVITY

• The white and black moth is a great example of natural selection.

• Peppered moths are usually white with black speckles but due to genetic mutation some moths are almost black.

• Although due to environmental issues such as the beginning of the industrial revolution, the white moth starting disappearing as it could not camouflage against the white bark. This meant the black moth produced more offspring which survived against predators and the environment.

• It is one of the best known examples of evolution by natural selection, Darwin's great discovery, and is often referred to as 'Darwin's moth'.

Complete Next Activity!

FACTS!• The peppered moth is nocturnal and it’s main predator is

bats not birds.• The scientific name for the peppered moth is Biston

betularia• Kingdom Animalia• Phylum Arthropoda• Class Insecta• Order Lepidoptera• Family Geometridae• Genus Biston Complete Next Activity

Galapagos finches• Darwin's finches are an

excellent example of the way in which species' gene pools have adapted in order for long term survival via their offspring. The Darwin's Finches diagram below illustrates the way the finch has adapted to take advantage of feeding in different ecological niche's.

Complete Next Activity

Activity Two:

• Students are to create a power point presentation on their knowledge of Charles Darwin's theory of Natural Selection providing an example.