Which moth pollinates Darwin’s star orchid in Madagascar?

The moth that pollinates Darwin’s star orchid in Madagascar is Xanthopan morganii praedicta.

The moth has an exceptionally long proboscis, allowing it to reach nectar at the end of the orchid Angraecum sesquipedale’s long nectar spur. Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace proposed that Madagascar must possess a pollinator with a sufficiently long feeding organ, decades before the moth was observed performing the interaction.

The moth was originally described as a variety of Xanthopan morganii and named praedicta because its existence had effectively been predicted from the flower’s structure. Later taxonomic work treated the Madagascar population as a subspecies, while some sources discuss it as a distinct species.

This is a landmark example of reciprocal evolutionary adaptation. The orchid’s long spur rewards a specialized pollinator, while the moth gains nectar. The interaction is often cited in discussions of coevolution and Darwin’s work on orchids.