Disruptive selection on sternopleural chaeta number in Drosophila melanogaster

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Abstract
It is generally accepted that reproductive isolation leading to the irreversible division of a Mendelian population into two species must be initiated during a period of geographical isolation (see Mayr, 1963). Thoday & Gibson (1962, Gibson & Thoday, 1963) obtained partial isolation within a population of Drosophila melanogaster by artificial disruptive selection for the number of sternopleural chaetae. This occurred in two experiments from the same base population after seven and twelve generations respectively. On the strength of these results they concluded that speciation does not require geographical isolation and that sympatric speciation by disruptive selection in a heterogeneous habitat is at least a theoretical possibility.

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