桦尺蛾

桦尺蛾（学名：），幼蟲又称桦尺蠖，是廣泛分布於歐、亞、北美三洲的夜行性尺蛾科物種。桦尺蠖在演化论的科学发展史上有着重大的意义，其演化過程經常被援引作例子。

分布
桦尺蠖在中國見於黑龍江、吉林、內蒙古、北京、河北、山西、山東、河南、寧夏、甘肅、青海、新疆、福建、四川、雲南及西藏；中國以外的有俄羅斯、蒙古、日本、北韓、南韓、尼泊爾、哈薩克斯坦、吉爾吉斯斯坦、土庫曼斯坦、格魯吉亞、阿塞拜疆、亞美尼亞、歐洲及北美洲。

演化
桦尺蠖的英文称为“斑点蛾”(peppered moth)，因19世纪中叶之前见到的桦尺蠖，都是浅灰色的翅膀上散布着一些黑色斑点。桦尺蠖在過去二百多年間的演化過程常常被深入研究。
1848年，首次采集到了黑色翅膀的桦尺蠖标本。

英国生物学家凯特·威尔（Bernard Kettlewell）、麦克·马杰鲁斯（Michael Majerus）等用实验证明了黑蛾的大量出现是鸟类的选择的结果（自然选择），而非煤烟等物质的定向诱导（拉马克主义）。

圖庫
Image:Biston_betularia_parva_male.JPG|Subspecies parva male
Image:Biston_betularia_parva_female.JPG|Subspecies parva female
Image:Biston betularia nepalensis male.jpg|Subspecies nepalensis male
Image:Biston betularia nepalensis female.jpg|Subspecies nepalensis female

參考資料
外部链接

• Bruce Grant has written several papers on melanism in the peppered moth which are listed on [http://bsgran.people.wm.edu his home page] .
• Online lecture: [https://web.archive.org/web/20070702152449/http://www.streaming.mmu.ac.uk/cook/ "The rise and fall of the melanic Peppered Moth"] presented by Laurence Cook.

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• [https://web.archive.org/web/20110724145125/http://www.gen.cam.ac.uk/research/personal/majerus/Darwiniandisciple.pdf The Peppered Moth: Decline of a Darwinian Disciple]. This is the transcript of Michael Majerus' lecture delivered to the British Humanist Association on Darwin Day 2004.
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20110615081639/http://www.gen.cam.ac.uk/research/personal/majerus/Swedentalk220807.pdf The Peppered Moth: The Proof of Darwinian Evolution]. This is the transcript of Majerus' lecture given at the European Society for Evolutionary Biology meeting on 23 August 2007. The accompanying powerpoint presentation is [https://web.archive.org/web/20110606212636/http://www.admin.cam.ac.uk/news/dp/2009020603 also available as a pdf file].

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*[https://web.archive.org/web/20111117061649/http://www.recercaenaccio.cat/agaur_reac/AppJava/en/interactiu/20091218-betularia.jsp An interactive game to simulate how evolution works with Biston betularia]