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- Desert populations of spiny cacti experience predation by peccaries, which consume the fleshy part of the cactus. This can be prevented by increasing the number of spines on the cactus. However, there is also a selection pressure in the opposite direction because there is a parasitic insect that will lay its eggs in spines if they are densely populated. This means that in order to manage both of these selection pressures the cacti experiences stabilizing selection to balance the appropriate number of spines

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