Magine a large source population of 500 flies at a particular time that we will call t0 . the flies have brown or ebony bodies. based on the information given above, how many total alleles for body color exist in the population?

The answer would be: 1000 alleles

The number of alleles will determine the possible combination of the phenotype. The flies have two kinds of color: brown or ebony bodies. Since there is two possible phenotype, the allele should be two. Then, if there are 500 flies and there are two alleles for every fly, the number of alleles would be: 500 flies * 2 alleles/fly= 1000 alleles