Question

In Florida, soapberry bugs have historically fed upon balloon vine fruits, which produce large fruits. Soapberry bugs that feed on these fruits have relatively long mouthparts. After the goldenrain tree was introduced as an ornamental plant in Florida, some populations of soapberry bugs became specialists and ate only goldenrain tree fruits, which produce small fruits. These specialized soapberry bug populations, on average, have shorter mouthparts than the populations that feed on balloon vine fruits. If a population of soapberry bugs from a balloon vine were experimentally moved to a goldenrain tree, what would you expect to happen over time?

In your answer, include definitions of natural selection and evolution in your own words

Answer 1

Nature selects the traits and thus alleles causing it which give an advantage to population and in this way the population evolves. Evolution of population stands for the heritable changes in traits bore by the individuals of the population. Since Balloon vine has large fruits soapberry bugs with large mouthparts have an advantage. When you introduce those on Goldernrain trees where fruits are small, they won't any longer bear an advantage due to their large mouthparts. Hence gradually again the population will be dominated by soapberry bugs with small parts as nature will have selected these individuals or to say they will have an advantage over the soapberry bugs with large mouthparts. Thus the population will evolve to have more soapberry bugs with small parts in the goldenrain tree.