lew@ihuxr.UUCP (Lew Mammel, Jr.) (04/27/84)
The 22 January, 1982 issue of SCIENCE, which contains the "Judge Hit's Hard at Creationism" news item, also contains the article, "Autocidal Control of Screwworms in North America", by R. H. Richardson, J. R. Ellison, and W. W. Averhoff. This is about controlling the screwworm population in the southern U.S. and Mexico by the release of sterile males. The gist is that laboratory bred populations have drifted away genetically from wild populations and are no longer effective at displacing fertile males in the wild. The particular thing that caught my notice was a comparison of the male genitalia in four distinct wild populations. The authors state, We found no intermediate forms among the wild specimens nor among the direct offspring from wild females cultured in the lab. The authors do not go on to argue that the four types must therefore be the result of a recent special creation :-) Would it be fair to argue that this lack of intermediate forms at what might be called the pico-evolution level vitiates the objection raised by creationists and other anti-evolutionists which is based on the lack of intermediate forms at the macro-evolution level ? (Deep breath) In calling this pico-evolution, I would note that early attempts at screwworm studies were stymied because ... Although the taxonomic distinction between the saprophitic fly (Cochliomyia macellaria, also a blowfly) and the parasitic screwworm fly C. hominivorax was known in Argentina in 1915, this distinction was not recognized by North American entomologists until 1933. Anyway, the article makes a beautiful case study in the type of population dynamics that are involved in speciation. It is interesting that this vitally practical application bears so directly on theoretical issues. "Science owes more to the steam engine than the steam engine owes to science" Lew Mammel, Jr. ihnp4!ihuxr!lew