The memoir of a scientist and the wild silk moths he   studies    Biologist Michael Collins has been studying wild silk moths since he was a   boy. This family -- which includes the largest and most colorful of the   North American moths -- led Collins into a long career as a scientist, and   has provided him with significant insights into the process by which new   species evolve.    Moth Catcher, is Collins's engaging account of his development as a   scientist and of his groundbreaking research. The canyon and pass   environments of the American West offer a setting in which, since the last   Ice Age, organisms have adapted to new surroundings and where many have   formed new species. Collins has discovered in the Sierra Nevada that   geneticists call a "hybrid zone" where two species interbreed. This hybrid   zone is unusual because both sexes are fertile, unlike lab-bred hybrids   between the same silk moth species. Collins explains how such hybrid   populations serve as laboratories in nature where the process of speciation   can be observed and studied.    This book offers a fascinating view into the work of a field scientist and   the ways that evolution continues to operate around us. Collins's colorful   accounts of his fieldwork will delight any reader who loves the outdoors   and is captivated by the diversity and interrelations of the life forms   found there. And his passion for his research and the fragile, exquisite   creatures that he studies will inspire a new appreciation of the wonders of   the natural world and the myriad life forms that occupy it.

Moth Catcher: An Evolutionist's Journey Through Canyon and Pass PDF

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