Peppered moths don't rest on tree trunks, and pictures of them there were faked (Talk.Origins)

Claim CB601.1:

Peppered moths do not normally rest on tree trunks. In decades of field work, only one peppered moth was found resting on a tree trunk in the wild. Kettlewell released his moths near the ground in the morning, which would have caused the moths to land on the trunks unnaturally. Pictures showing moths on trunks were staged. This invalidates the research that was based on the assumption that they normally rested on trunks.

Source:
 * Wells, Jonathan, 1999. Second thoughts on peppered moths. This classical story of evolution by natural selection needs revising.
 * Wells, Jonathan, 2000. Icons of Evolution, Washington DC: Regnery Publishing Inc., pp. 137-157.

CreationWiki response:

It needs to be noted that the traditional peppered moth story is no way a threat to creation science. Not only do the peppered moths remain peppered moths but there has not even been a change in the peppered moth gene pool &mdash; only a temporary shift in populations. The fact that Evolutionists even consider this evidence for evolution is a sign of desperation.

Wells does not claim that “the moths do not naturally land on trunks” but that it is not their normal resting place. Even as worded by Talk Origins the claim shows that sometimes they do land on trunks. So Talk Origins is using a Straw Man.

True, but they are not at same angle as the trunks. Talk Origins has conveniently left out the fact that the moths rest on the underside of the branches, thus hiding them from birds regardless of their color.

The problem is that they do not show the normal case. If they accurately represented the normal case, the staged photos would be OK. Since they do not show the normal case, they should not be used.