Studies on natural populations of Drosophila. V. Correlated response to selection in Drosophila melanogaster.

I N the series of experiments to be described, a population of Drosophila melanogaster was selected for increase or decrease in wing length, with and without inbreeding, and the resulting changes in thorax length, rate of egg production, and longevity were observed. Heritabilities, and phenotypic and genetic correlations were also measured at intervals during the ten generations of selection. The aim was to add to our knowledge of the effects of such selection both on another metric character and on characters believed to be related to the populations’s “fitness”-i.e., egg production, percentage of emergence and longevity.