Hawaiian honeycreepers, which are closely related to North American finches, have been devastated by the introduction of mosquitoes and now survive only at sufficiently high elevations which are devoid of mosquitoes. Given what you know about the potential problems with introduced species, why have mosquitoes been so detrimental to Hawaiian honeycreepers when birds all over the world have been exposed to mosquitoes with little or no negative consequences?
A. Mosquitoes are more abundant on Hawaii than anywhere else on earth due to the tropical trade-winds and moist conditions.
B. Mosquitoes are not native to Hawaii and hence Hawaiian honeycreepers have evolved no defenses against the diseases that mosquitoes transmit.
C. Hawaiian honeycreepers are competing with mosquitoes for food, and the more aggressive mosquitoes are outcompeting the honeycreepers.
D. Hawaiian honeycreepers have only recently evolved (branched off) from the ancestral finch stock and therefore have not had time to evolve defenses against other organisms in their native habitats.
Answer: B
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