The engines of speciation have long been a matter of much debate. This talk will discuss the potential role of magic traits in assortative mating and disruptive selection leading to speciation in sympatry. It will provide a historical and contemporary view of the ideas and evidence for mechanisms that could result in sympatric speciation.

Please note that before the talk, there will be brief presentations on recent publications by Shruti Unnikrishnan, Sabiha Majumder, Pratibha Yadav and Sanjeeta Sharma Pokharel.