Question

Suppose a certain species of insect lives in the lush green canopy of the rain forest. Some of the insects are bright green in color, and some are bright yellow. Assume there is a natural predator of the insect in the area. What do you expect to happen to the populations of the green and the yellow insects over time?

Answer 1

yellow insects population will decline

Step-by-step explanation:

In a lush green area , it is easy for green insects to hide themselves. Thus, yellow colored insects can be easily traced by the predator species. This will cause decrease in population of yellow insects with time, while the green insect population will keep on growing. Removal of yellow insects also makes more food available for green insects . Hence without any environmental restriction , the green insects population will flourish well.

Answer 2

You would expect the number of yellow insects in the area to decrease and the number of green insects to increase overtime in this situation. This is because the predator would be more likely to see (and try to eat) the yellow insects than the green insects in a habitat which is "lush and green". Due to this, less yellow insects would be present so there would be slightly more resources, space etc for the remaining green insects to live and breed (taking into account that lots of other animals live in a rainforest too, not just these different coloured members of a single species)