The whistling tree frog (Litoria verreauxii), or Verreaux's tree frog, is a species of frog found in Australia. It has been divided into two subspecies, the nominate Verreaux's tree frog and the Verreaux's alpine tree frog. The alpine tree frog is restricted to the southern alps of New South Wales and Victoria. Verreaux's tree frog is widespread throughout south-eastern Queensland, coastal and highland regions of New South Wales, and south-eastern Victoria.
Whistling tree frog
L. v. alpina
Evidence for speciation by reinforcement
Reinforcement is a process within speciation where natural selection increases the reproductive isolation between two populations of species by reducing the production of hybrids. Evidence for speciation by reinforcement has been gathered since the 1990s, and along with data from comparative studies and laboratory experiments, has overcome many of the objections to the theory. Differences in behavior or biology that inhibit formation of hybrid zygotes are termed prezygotic isolation. Reinforcement can be shown to be occurring by measuring the strength of prezygotic isolation in a sympatric population in comparison to an allopatric population of the same species. Comparative studies of this allow for determining large-scale patterns in nature across various taxa. Mating patterns in hybrid zones can also be used to detect reinforcement. Reproductive character displacement is seen as a result of reinforcement, so many of the cases in nature express this pattern in sympatry. Reinforcement's prevalence is unknown, but the patterns of reproductive character displacement are found across numerous taxa, and is considered to be a common occurrence in nature. Studies of reinforcement in nature often prove difficult, as alternative explanations for the detected patterns can be asserted. Nevertheless, empirical evidence exists for reinforcement occurring across various taxa and its role in precipitating speciation is conclusive.
The southern brown tree frog, Litoria ewingi
The small ground finch, one of Darwin's finches of the Galápagos
Echinometra viridis, one of several species in the genus that produce fertile hybrids.
Drosophila fruit fly