Experimental evolution of color preference for oviposition in Drosophila melanogaster

Mellissa Marcus, Terence C. Burnham, David W. Stephens, Aimee S. Dunlap

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

5 Scopus citations

Abstract

Preferences are the foundation of economics. Preferences are taken by economists as fixed by some implicitly biological process. In recent decades, behavioral economics has documented the divergence between the nature of human preferences and the assumptions of standard economics. In this study, we use the tool of experimental evolution to study the evolution of color preferences in fruit flies (Drosophila melanogaster). In particular, we select for a preference for laying eggs on the color aqua. We find that the flies evolve to lay more than twice as many eggs on aqua. However, this evolution occurs entirely because the flies lay more eggs overall. The flies in this study, do not evolve to lay a higher percentage of eggs on the selected color, aqua.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)125-140
Number of pages16
JournalJournal of Bioeconomics
Volume20
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - Apr 1 2018

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2017, Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.

Keywords

  • Adaptation
  • Behavioral economics
  • Evolution
  • Experimental evolution
  • Preference theory
  • selection

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