A female apple maggot fly, Rhagoletis pomonella, implants an egg into an apple. Wasps that attack the flies and eat their larvae appear to be changing on a genetic level in the same way that the flies themselves appear to be changing genetically
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Image Courtesy of Rob Oakleaf
Researchers Observe Evolution Chain Reaction
News story originally written on February 5, 2009
Scientists have discovered a new species of fruit fly and wasp. The two species are related and has to do with the introduction of apples in the United States almost 400 years ago.
For almost 250 years after the introduction of apples to North America, insects called hawthorn flies, (with the scientific name Rhagoletis pomonella), did what they had always done and met on the small, red fruit of hawthorn trees to mate and lay eggs. Then, in the mid-1800s, some of these "hawthorn flies" began to mate and lay eggs on apples instead. The flies that were attracted to apples eventually became different from the flies attracted to hawthorns. The wasps that live on the flies' larve also became genetically different.
"It's a nice demonstration of how the initial speciation of one organism opens up an opportunity for another species in the ecosystem to speciate in kind," said Jeff Feder, a biologist from the University of Notre Dame. "Biodiversity in essence is the source for new biodiversity."
This represents a chain reaction of biodiversity where the modification of one species triggers the sequential modification of a second, dependent species. This research is important because it provides insights into solving Darwin's mystery of the origins of new species.
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