A plausible evolutionary explanation to this attraction is that, upon its arrival in the Seychelles, the ancestor of Drosophila sechellia used a diversity of resources available such as aged, rotten, and nontoxic Morinda fruits.

[4] Recent research found that reduced expression of a newly discovered gene, Esterase 6 (Est6), is an important element of the genetic underpinnings behind the adaptation of D. Sechellia to feed on Morinda fruits.

The rapid developing genotypes thus only had a short time to grow on the Morinda fruit before the arrival of other strong larval competitors.

[7] This adaptation to the fresh Morinda fruit would require toleration to the toxins and would make the D. sechellia larvae develop quickly after the eggs were deposited.

The tolerance is a consequence of the changing biotic community in the Morinda fruit as it decays, and expects that such a mutation would accelerate the process of adaptation.