Question

In California there are many species of butterfly. You notice that females of one species lay their eggs near the tip of a plant’s stem (species A). Females of another species in the same area lay their eggs at the base of the stem on a different type of plant (species B). The young hatch out as caterpillars; they live on the host plant and eat its leaves. The different plants used by the butterfly species are both abundant and evenly dispersed in the habitat. This suggests that host plant distribution would ____________ the distribution of different butterfly species within the habitat.

Answer 1

Answer:

This suggests that host plant distribution would have no effect on the distribution of different butterfly species within the habitat.

Explanation:

The host plant species are evenly dispersed in the habitat. Dispersion is the spacing of individuals of a population relative to each other. The members of a species may be randomly dispersed or may exhibit uniform or clumped distribution. The host plant species A and B are evenly distributed in the habitat. This means that the plants of species A and species B are uniformly spaced in the habitat.

The two species of the butterfly use different species of the plant as their host which means that they do not share or compete for the resources. Since the host plant is uniformly dispersed, the distribution of host plant would not affect the distribution of different butterfly species within the habitat.