Abstract
AYALA1 demonstrated experimentally that two species of Drosophila competing for limited food and space can coexist. Based on this evidence, he rejected the principle of competitive exclusion (Gause's principle), which states that two species cannot coexist indefinitely if they compete for the same limited resources; that is, if they occupy the same ecological niche. He suggests that competitive coexistence in Drosophila is allowed by (1) differences between the two species in competitive fitness of the larval and adult stages, and (2) the inverse dependency of each species' competitive ability on its relative frequency or population density2. In his two articles, Ayala reviews and cites the literature pertaining to competitive exclusion in animals.
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