What an empty victory:
Most insects can fly. Yet scores of species have lost that extraordinary ability, particularly on islands.
On the small islands that lie halfway between Antarctica and continents like Australia, almost all the insects have done so.
Flies walk, moths crawl.
“Of course, Charles Darwin knew about this wing loss habit of island insects,” says PhD candidate Rachel Leihy, from the Monash University School of Biological Sciences.
“He and the famous botanist Joseph Hooker had a substantial argument about why this happens. Darwin’s position was deceptively simple. If you fly, you get blown out to sea. Those left on land to produce the next generation are those most reluctant to fly, and eventually evolution does the rest. Voilà.”
Monash University, “Charles Darwin was right about why insects are losing the ability to fly” at ScienceDaily
Paper. (paywall)
Losing an ability is not the question. It is gaining an ability that matters.
But if people need a publication and a bunch of citations, maybe that’s the story they’ll pretend props up Darwinism.