Final answer:
Laboratory experiments showing yellow buntings fleeing from butterflies with eyespots indicate that predator responses can affect natural selection, potentially increasing eyespot frequency in butterfly populations.
Step-by-step explanation:
The question focuses on the effects of predator-prey interactions on natural selection. In the laboratory experiments, yellow buntings exhibited different responses when encountering butterflies with or without eyespots. The observation that there were more instances of birds responding by fleeing from butterflies with eyespots supports the idea that predatory response can influence the selection of traits in another species, as eyespots which mimic predators may deter attacks from actual predators, giving butterflies with this trait a survival advantage.
This phenomenon also underscores how the responses of one species based on certain traits of another species can drive natural selection. For example, avoidance by the yellow buntings may decrease the predation pressure on butterflies with eyespots, consequently increasing the frequency of this trait in the butterfly population over time.