There are many strange objects locked away in the museum stores. But this is one of the strangest. It's known as Darwin's Sphinx moth from Madagascar. Darwin didn't know anything about the moth to start with. He was working on pollination in orchids, and he was sent some orchid flowers, and among these was this Madagascan Star Orchid. The orchid had an extraordinarily long tube. Darwin deduced that the only creature in Madagascar that could pollinate this flower was a type of hawk moth. One with a tongue long enough to reach 30 centimetres down to the nectar. He knew of no example of a moth that had a long enough tongue to pollinate this. But he made a prediction that such a moth would one day be found.


博物馆的储藏室里锁着许许多多奇怪生物，但这只是奇中之奇。这个马达加斯加贵客被称为达尔文之谜。达尔文一开始对蛾子一无所知，那时他在研究兰花授粉，有人寄来了一些兰花，其中就有这种马达加斯加彗星兰。这种兰花花冠特别细切长，达尔文推断出在马达加斯加，只有一种鹰蛾能为它传粉。它30厘米长的舌头，可以深入花蕊底部。他之前从没有听说过哪种蛾子有这么长的舌头。但是他这样预言，总有一天人们会发现这种蛾子。