Moth catcher : an evolutionist's journey through canyon and pass / Michael M. Collins.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Collins, Michael M., 1943- author.

Series:

Gambling Studies

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Naturalists--United States--Biography.

Naturalists.

Saturniidae--Hybridization.

Saturniidae.

Collins, Michael M., 1943-.

Collins, Michael M.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xviii, 176 p, [8] p. of plates ) ill. (some col.), map ;

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Reno, Nevada ; Las Vegas : University of Nevada Press, [2007]

Summary:

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 what 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.

Contents:

Cover

Title page

Contents

List of Illustrations and Tables

Preface to 2nd Edition

Part I

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Part II

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Part III

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Appendix 1

Appendix 2

Appendix 3

Appendix 4

Appendix 5

Appendix 6

Appendix 7

Appendix 8

Appendix 9

Appendix 10

Notes

Gaming Glossary

Selected Bibliography

Index.

Notes:

Description based on print version record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780874177305

0874177308

OCLC:

173816804