Drosophila

● holometabolous
an insect that has a larval and a pupal stage prior to the adult stage.
● adult Drosophila may live for more than 10 weeks
● Fertilization is internal
● sperm are stored within the female’s body in a seminal receptacle and the paired
spermathecae
● Females reach the peak of their egg production between the fourth and seventh day
after their emergence. During this time, they lay eggs almost continuously at a rate of
50–70 eggs per day

Eggs
● approximately one-half mm in length
● White
● Oval
● Slightly flattened in lateral view

Culturing Drosophila melanogaster

Culture medium: Crushed banana or cornmeal-molasses-agar mixture

*don’t overcrowd (about 100 flies per pint culture jar)

Collecting Eggs
- use cultures of flies that are 5 days old.

● Collecting chamber
- empty culture bottle (any widemouthed bottle will do) with wet toweling stuffed
in the bottom (for humidity) and a cotton or foam rubber plug.
- invert culture bottle over the mouth of empty bottle
-hold bottles together,
-bang the empty bottom bottle against padding on a tabletop to drop fruitflies
- Quickly replace the plugs of both bottles.
-put culture medium in spoons with cut handles and score it to make grooves
- paint a light coating of baker’s yeast suspension on the surface of the scored
medium
-place one or two of these spoons in the collecting chamber with the flies
*face the bottom end of the bottle toward a bright light.
-Place the bottle on its side so the medium won’t slip off the spoons
 -After about an hour, a suitable number of eggs will have been laid on the
spoons, and they can be removed and replaced with fresh spoons containing
medium.

Mating behavior of adult flies

Before removing the spoons from the bottle, observe the adult flies through the glass, or place
males and females in a small covered petri dish and observe them under the dissecting scope.

To remove flies,
-first place the bottle in the refrigerator or keep it on ice for at least 20 minutes to numb them
- distinguish males from females by looking for the black pigmentation on the posterior
abdominal segment males: check , females: none
-Watch for courtship behavior