The pshaw heard round the world

When Charles Darwin saw the foot-long nectar spur on the Madagascan comet orchid, right, he predicted that a moth with a tongue at least a foot long must also exist. How else could such a freakishly long nectary be explained?

He wrote, "our English sphinxes have probosces as long as their bodies: but in Madagascar there must be moths with probosces capable of extension to a length of between ten and eleven inches!"

Entomologists responded with a resounding, collective pshaw. Such a moth had never been found nor, they pompously surmised, would it ever be found.

Sadly, Darwin died before he was vindicated. But vindicated he was, when, over 40 years later, the giant hawk moth, below right, was discovered with a foot-long proboscis to match the orchid's foot-long nectary. It was named Xanthopan morganii praedicta to honor Darwin's prediction.

You can read more about the orchid, the moth and Darwin's prediction here, on the excellent AMNH Darwin online exhibition (also the source of the orchid photo above).

And as if that weren't enough, now you can even see the Madagascan comet orchid up close and personal at the National Botanic Garden of Wales.