In Lake Victoria (the largest freshwater lake in Africa), researchers recently found that in one cichlid species, male fishes with brighter red coloration maintain large territories. Red males are at an advantage because female cichlids tend to choose males with brighter color and larger territory size. Assuming that red coloration is heritable, what do you expect would occur if some females of this species began to prefer male cichlids with blue coloration?

If the female prefers blue colored cichlids, so they mate with each other and increase occurs in the population of blue colored cichlids and with the passage of time bright colored cichlids decrease in number due to less reproduction with female cichlids. So those cichlids becomes dominant in the lake to which more female mate and those which receive less female are less in number and having lower territory size.

aliasger2709 aliasger2709 · Answer 2 · 2021-11-17T08:34:06+01:00

Cichlid is the fish variety found diversely in South America and Africa. They are primarily herbivores and feed on plants and algae. Cichlids mate both with single or multiple partners.

Speciation would occur if some females of this variety began to prefer male cichlids with a blue coloration. The population of blue colored fishes will increase.

The explanation for the answer is:

Female mate choice plays a major role in speciation. They play important role in differentiation and speciation.

After several generations of mating with the blue parent, all the offspring will become blue.

Change in the recurrence of variation or the genetic drift where red-coloured fishes are preferred will result in the fixation.

This female choice would act as a barrier to the gene flow.

The mutation rate in genes coding for the colour will increase.

To learn more about speciation and genetic drift follow the given link:

https://brainly.com/question/9589072