This entoLIVE webinar is hosted by the Biological Recording Company. Visit the link below for more information and tickets.
Dr Geoff Oxford (our BAS Hon Secretary and a past President) shares new research reappraising the phenomenon of industrial melanism in British spiders. His review of the subject has recently been published in our journal Arachnology.
Industrial melanism refers to the phenomenon whereby some invertebrates evolved dark (melanic) forms in response to the darkening by soot of their resting surfaces during the Industrial Revolution. This response provided a clear example of Darwin's 'evolution by natural selection' and was particularly well studies in moths. In this webinar Geoff will reappraise three claimed examples of industrial melanism in spiders and draw conclusions as to whether they constitute genuine exemplars of the phenomenon.
Geoff taught genetics and evolution at the University of York for nearly 40 years. His research focussed largely on the adaptive significance of colour polymorphisms in spiders and on speciation and hybridization in Large house spider species.