# New Drosophilia culture!



## Zephyr (Mar 9, 2009)

Well, I gathered up some pupas I found in the fall, and I started a colony of local Drosophilia species!

They're way to big to be melanogaster; they have tiger stripes on their abdomens as well. Whatever they are, they produce like MAD. I have a hard time keeping them all in their container, so a few got out and have found some places to reproduce in a few of my soil-based roach colonies.

Anyways, I found a female that couldn't fly the other day (it looks like one of her wings is a stub and the other's a little messed up too) and I separated a male to produce with her. If all goes well, and if this is a genetic trait, soon I should have flightless cultures of this amazing species. The largest females are a little bigger than D. hydei, and the maggots prefer to crawl on the surface of and make craters in their culture medium. In the summer I'll be making a rig that will let me harvest the large maggots (the biggest of which are literally 1/3+ of an inch long) for fish and frog food. A very neat little species, I'd say.

Any comments on the matter? Do you guys think it's a genetic trait or no?


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## hibiscusmile (Mar 9, 2009)

beats me, but I'll have some when u r ready!


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## PhilinYuma (Mar 9, 2009)

Zephyr said:


> Well, I gathered up some pupas I found in the fall, and I started a colony of local Drosophilia species!They're way to big to be melanogaster; they have tiger stripes on their abdomens as well. Whatever they are, they produce like MAD. I have a hard time keeping them all in their container, so a few got out and have found some places to reproduce in a few of my soil-based roach colonies.
> 
> Anyways, I found a female that couldn't fly the other day (it looks like one of her wings is a stub and the other's a little messed up too) and I separated a male to produce with her. If all goes well, and if this is a genetic trait, soon I should have flightless cultures of this amazing species. The largest females are a little bigger than D. hydei, and the maggots prefer to crawl on the surface of and make craters in their culture medium. In the summer I'll be making a rig that will let me harvest the large maggots (the biggest of which are literally 1/3+ of an inch long) for fish and frog food. A very neat little species, I'd say.
> 
> Any comments on the matter? Do you guys think it's a genetic trait or no?


Sounds like you have a great project going there! I don't think that the problem with the female's wings is genetic, because the degree/kind of atrophy isn't the same in both wings, Sound's more like a problem at eclusion to me, but it's really cool that you are checking it out rather thank just sitting and wondering. Even if it is a genetic deformity, though, since the male is normal you won't have anything like 100% (remember Mendel and his Boring Beans?) of offspring like their mom and would have to selectively breed for the recessive gene through a number of generations. From your description of the "tiger stripes" and mention of the maggots making a crater in the medium (do they bury themselves with just their tail sticking out?), it sounds as though you may have found a species of hover fly. Here's a URL that may help: http://www.microscopy-uk.org.uk/mag/artmay...hoverflies.html . It is an English site, so it won't show American species, and it is egregiously badly written, but there is a lot of information there and the photographs should give you an idea of whether or not that is what you have.

The idea of having a culture of flies that is intermediate between D. hydei and the house fly is also very cool, and if you get a sustainable culture of either winged or wingless going, I would be interested in buying some from you.

Good luck, and please keep us informed of your progress!


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## Kaddock (Mar 9, 2009)

keep me in mind if you get em flightless! i'll take some too!


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## Zephyr (Mar 10, 2009)

These definitely aren't hover flies; the maggots make craters in the medium, as to why I don't know. It looks more like swiss cheese.

I'll be breeding the babies together for completely flightless and normal hets, but to get rid of the ones that can fly I'll be letting them go (literally) and keeping the ones that can't fly.

These guys are going nuts with producing. The whole container if full of these massive pupae and maggots. Here are some pics:







The main colony. (The big maggots leave all that gunk on the sides.)






Another colony with my finger for size comparison.






Isolation container for the female flightless and male.


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## PhilinYuma (Mar 11, 2009)

Zephyr said:


> These definitely aren't hover flies; the maggots make craters in the medium, as to why I don't know. It looks more like swiss cheese.I'll be breeding the babies together for completely flightless and normal hets, but to get rid of the ones that can fly I'll be letting them go (literally) and keeping the ones that can't fly.


I can't recognize the sp. from the pix, but they certainly look like drosophila or a related genus. Some fruit flies have stripes like those you described. Here is a URL that I found a while ago while checking out D. virilis. A very big URL for a very small fly: http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=htt...sa%3DN%26um%3D1

Maybe you'll recognize you species here.


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## Orin (Mar 11, 2009)

First thing and last thing I think when I see the larvae, pupae and adults is phorid flies (they used to get in my fruit fly cultures now and then). They are faster growing, hardier and just as good a food but a little more pesky and so far always can fly.


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## OGIGA (Mar 12, 2009)

A while ago, someone by the name of asdfsdf used to hang around here on the forum. He told me about something called "super flies". He said that they are almost the same as drosophilia melanofaster but 20 times faster. Well, I happen to have found some and I'm breeding them now. They are really fast. They don't walk, they run. Also, they make the container really messy like in your picture and they reproduce slower than d. melanogaster.


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## PhilinYuma (Mar 12, 2009)

Orin said:


> First thing and last thing I think when I see the larvae, pupae and adults is phorid flies (they used to get in my fruit fly cultures now and then). They are faster growing, hardier and just as good a food but a little more pesky and so far always can fly.


I get those in my cricket box sometimes, but mine are very hump backed and have black abdomens. I just searched the net, though, and found a stripey one: http://www.phorid.net/phoridae/phorselva/melalon.htm, so you're probably right about these.

Zephyr: Phorid flies have a wing venation that is quite different from Melanogaster sp. and is clearly shown in the pic. That should help you decide whether or not yours are phorids. The ones I get are about 1/8" (3mm) long.

If that doesn't work out and if you live in the southwest, you might want to consider the possibility that they're really small turkey vultures. :huh:


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## Zephyr (Mar 12, 2009)

Definitely not phorid flies. I've seen these around as well; these are definitely fruit flies of some sort.

I do, actually, have a high-powered microscope with a camera attachment on hand.

Would close-up photos help the dilemma?

***Edit- I may have to bite my tongue. They just might be phorid flies. XD

I'm prepping a specimen for the pictures right now...

If they ARE phorid flies... It's very interesting that they're thriving on Drosophilia medium


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## Zephyr (Mar 12, 2009)

Alright, I got pics of what I think is a male.


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## Orin (Mar 16, 2009)

Phorids:

adults with reduced wing veination and flattened hind femora

pupae without the 'snorkels'

larvae with a rounded rear and visible segmentation


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## PhilinYuma (Mar 16, 2009)

Orin said:


> Phorids:adults with reduced wing veination and flattened hind femora
> 
> pupae without the 'snorkels'
> 
> larvae with a rounded rear and visible segmentation


Yeah, I'd defer to Orin on this if he'd said differently, but I think that the wing venation is a give away.

This pic might even be the same species: http://www.biosurvey.ou.edu/okwild/misc/images/megscal.jpg

What do you think?

Regardless of the species and whether or not they are wingless (and a lot of phorids produce wingless mutants), if these flies are the same size as or larger than D. hydei and breed more easily, there may be a market for them.


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## Zephyr (Mar 17, 2009)

Alrighty then.

Phorids they are!  

The het flightless maggots are almost mature.


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