Previous work showed that insecticide resistance in Drosophila melanogaster is correlated with the insertion of an Accord ‐like element into the 5′ region of the cytochrome P450 gene, Cyp6g1 . Here, we study the distribution of the Accord ‐like element in 673 recently collected D. melanogaster lines from 34 world‐wide populations. We also examine the extent of microsatellite variability along a 180‐kilobase (kb) genomic region...