Abstract
A cryptic polymorphism found in natural populations of D. melanogaster was examined in an artificial population maintained for over 200 generations. The polymorphism is selected because it is insensitive to the segregation distorter phenomenon, and it thereby largely preserves the Mendelian rules of segregation. Segregation distorter chromosomes and the cryptic polymorphism form part of a coadapted complex which is associated with linkage disequilibrium in natural populations.