GENETIC VARIATION AND HOST PLANT RELATIONS IN A PARTHENOGENETIC MOTH

Abstract

Ecological genetics is the investigation of the influence of ecological factors on the genetic properties of populations, and the influence of genetic structure on their ecological properties. Ideally, these studies should determine how genetic variation is affected by selection and by the size, dynamics, and degree of subdivision of populations; what ecological factors determine the relative fitness of genotypes; and what effect the genetic composition of a population has on such ecological parameters as its density, stability, and ecological amplitude. Many studies have demonstrated selection in natural populations; indeed, the widespread existence of selection is perhaps the only generalization that can be made about ecological genetics. But most studies are incomplete. A few, such as the analysis of inversion karyotypes in Drosophila pseudoobscura by Dobzhansky