# Drosophila virilis



## Aphaenogaster (Jan 31, 2016)

Has anyone tried culturing _Drosophila virilis _as a feeder? It sounds like they are significantly larger than _D. hydei_, so they might turn out to be very useful. However, as far as I can tell, there is not yet a flightless mutant available.

Cultures can be purchased here:

https://www.wardsci.com/store/catalog/product.jsp?catalog_number=876650


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## Mime454 (Jan 31, 2016)

I work in a fruit fly lab and there are some of these wild in there. I've caught some and they seem to be easy to culture. The larvae are huge.


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## Aphaenogaster (Jan 31, 2016)

Mime454 said:


> I work in a fruit fly lab and there are some of these wild in there. I've caught some and they seem to be easy to culture. The larvae are huge.


How large are the adults? I've been unable to find exact measurements online.


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## Mime454 (Jan 31, 2016)

I'm not totally sure if they're this exact species, but the ones I'm finding are about 1.75x the size of Hydei. Still smaller than house flies by a good amount.


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## Aphaenogaster (Jan 31, 2016)

Mime454 said:


> I'm not totally sure if they're this exact species, but the ones I'm finding are about 1.75x the size of Hydei. Still smaller than house flies by a good amount.


Interesting. I might buy some _D. virilus_ then and give them a try. Thanks for your response!

Too bad there aren't any fruit flies that are closer to the size of house flies. That would make feeding mantids infinitely easier.


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## Introvertebrate (Feb 1, 2016)

If they can breed flightless mutants, why can't they breed house fly sized mutants?


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## Introvertebrate (Feb 1, 2016)

This article describes the Hawaiian "picture-wing" FF species, "........many (of which) are about the size of common houseflies." Sounds like they're called Drosophila parkinsi, but possibly an endangered species.

https://books.google.com/books?id=gw0EAAAAMBAJ&amp;pg=PA34&amp;lpg=PA34&amp;dq=%22largest+drosophila+species%22&amp;source=bl&amp;ots=gIQH6Szz4m&amp;sig=RSjAEnlTHeDRVZLa2nEqWaPlBzM&amp;hl=en&amp;sa=X&amp;ved=0ahUKEwi1lY7a29bKAhXLRiYKHWLZDUYQ6AEIHDAA#v=onepage&amp;q=%22largest%20drosophila%20species%22&amp;f=false


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## Mime454 (Feb 5, 2016)

Introvertebrate said:


> If they can breed flightless mutants, why can't they breed house fly sized mutants?


The flightless mutants only vary from wildtype by a single gene, and that gene is recessive, so if you have a population of flightless flies the flying variant won't come back without a new mutation.


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## Chungy (Feb 10, 2016)

Anyone get to actually try culturing these yet? Updates would be wonderful!


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