Charles Darwin mentioned a whirlpool (moth) during his scientific journey in the 19th century, and it is now known that this long-tongued worm is a brand new species that were not recorded in scientific literature. This whirlpool is also called Darwin Moth.
The scientific name for this whirlpool is Xanthopan predict, which has a tongue up to 30 cm long. This whirlpool is found in Madagascar and drinks only the juice of special flowers. The name of this flower is Star Orchid which has a long tubular structure and nature has given it an unusually long tongue to suck this juice.
Interestingly, Charles Darwin also predicted this worm based on his observations. When he saw the special flower of Madagascar in 1862, he said, “Some insect must have sucked the juice of this flower, but what kind of creature is that?”
Then, in 1903, biologists Carl Jordan and Walter Rothschild discovered the worm, but at the time it was a subspecies of a kind of whirlpool, the Morgan Sphinx Mox. But now David Lace, an expert at the Natural History Museum in London, and his colleagues have called it a brand new type of whirlpool because of its genetic and physical appearance. It is now called Zeitoupan Predicta.
Hundreds of sub-species of hawk moth have been discovered. The Darwin Hawk Moth is found only in the islands of Madagascar. His life depends on Star Orchid. Interestingly, the tongue of an insect is as long as an orchid flower. Even during the flight, the whirlpool gently sticks out its tongue and sucks the juice with pleasure.
