Understand how the fitness values in in Table 5.6 were derived. The details of the story are now known to be more complex. Pesticide resistance in insects is an example of natural selection. This section gives another example of applying the simple model of selection to real-world observations. Be able to discuss the basic biology, the relevant assumptions of this example.
Fitnesses are important numbers in evolutionary theory and can be estimated by three main methods.
Two of the three methods have already been discussed. Calculations from gene-frequency changes between generations. But in most cases fitnesses are extremely difficulty to determine. Natural selection operating on a favored allele at a single locus is not meant to be a general model of evolution. The ideal, simplified conditions of single-locus, two allele models in large, randomly mating populations are not realistic.