Rhagoletis pomonella in New York's Hudson River Valley is separating into two different groups-one that lays eggs on apples and one that lays eggs on hawthorn fruits.This fly species is demonstrating

Question

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This situation demonstrates sympatric speciation, where two different groups of a species are diverging within the same geographic area based on their preference for different food sources (apple or hawthorn fruits). Allopatric speciation (A) requires geographic separation, speciation due to directional selection (B) occurs when natural selection favors one extreme phenotype over another within a population, and polyploidy (D) involves changes in chromosome number that can lead to speciation. None of these processes are clearly at work in the Hudson River Valley Rhagoletis pomonella example. The early stages of extinction (E) may involve population decline and genetic drift, but this is not evident from the information provided.

Rhagoletis Pomonella in New York's Hudson River Valley Is Separating