Final answer:
Scarlet kingsnakes exhibit mimicry when they evolve a pattern similar to harmful coral snakes, which offers survival benefits by deterring predators. This form of natural selection is more relevant than other options like genetic drift or stabilizing/disruptive selection, which do not specifically pertain to mimicry in this context.
Step-by-step explanation:
In scarlet kingsnakes, alleles that lead to a coloration pattern similar to coral snakes exhibit mimicry. This phenomenon occurs when a harmless species evolves to resemble another species that is harmful, gaining protection from predators through deception. In laboratory experiments, predators familiar with the poisonous coral snake may show a preference for avoiding not only the coral snake but also the non-poisonous mimic with similar bright coloration. Consequently, these snakes gain a survival advantage, and the alleles associated with such mimicry are naturally selected for within the population.
The alternatives such as genetic drift are less likely in this scenario. While genetic drift can indeed change allele frequencies in a population by chance, it does not necessarily lead to adaptive mimicry. Moreover, options such as stabilizing selection or disruptive selection, which refer to natural selection favoring intermediate variations or extreme traits, respectively, do not directly apply to mimicry, which is specifically about one species resembling another for survival benefits.