Natural selection may then favor enemies capable of colonizing the new plant species, with subsequent reproductive isolation and the formation of additional enemy species. New enemy and plant species are thus formed. Ehrlich and Raven claimed that coevolution may be the major kind of interaction generating the diversity of species on land. While many scientists are skeptical of that statement, the evidence of coevolution is all around us, and many fascinating relationships in nature have arisen from it.
Evidence of Coevolution
Most plants and animals experience natural selection from many sources at once. So it seems unlikely that one organism would be the sole or even the primary selective influence on another. Nonetheless, there are good examples of tightly coevolved relationships (the two participants have a highly specialized interaction). In these cases, the selective advantages gained by responding to one source of selection (the other participant) must outweigh many other factors.
For example, butterflies in the cabbage butterfly family (Pieridae) feed primarily on plants in the cabbage family (Brassicaceae).
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