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Imagine looking at a flower and predicting an animal no one had ever seen. 🌸🦋⁠ ⁠ In 1862, Charles Darwin examined a Madagascan orchid with an 11-inch nectar spur and made an extraordinary prediction. Somewhere in Madagascar, he argued, there had to be a moth with an impossibly long tongue—long enough to reach the nectar hidden deep inside the flower.⁠ ⁠ Many dismissed the idea as ridiculous.⁠ ⁠ Forty years after Darwin's death, scientists discovered the giant hawkmoth Xanthopan praedicta, with a proboscis reaching up to 14 inches long. It wasn't until 1992 that researchers finally documented the moth pollinating Darwin's orchid in the wild—130 years after his original prediction.⁠ ⁠ The story didn't end there. In 2024, botanists described a close relative of Darwin's orchid and named it in honor of the remarkable hawkmoth that pollinates it—a reminder that evolution continues to reveal new chapters in a story Darwin began more than 160 years ago.⁠ ⁠ As our latest issue explores, Darw...

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