Flightless or Wingless melanogasters

[Katnapper]

Do either the flightless or wingless strains of melanogasters have any advantages or disadvantages over the other? Is it just personal preference which to choose? Has anyone had better luck or different results with either of them (as opposed to the other)?

 

[Headspace]

The only difference is that one has vestigial wings and the other has none at all. Other than that, I haven't noticed a difference. Anyone who took a genetics course in college probably has experience with one or both.

Just make sure your cultures don't get contaminated by wild type flies. Both the apterous (wingless) and vestigial flies' traits are caused by recessive genes, so if you get wild type flies mating with your females the babies will be able to fly.

 

[Katnapper]

Thanks, Headspace... I have been researching ff culturing tips and know most of the basics about the differences, including not to mix the different strains in new cultures, etc. I'm aware different factors, such as repeated inbreeding over time, and temperatures in which they are kept can affect the incidence of reversion back to flight.

But I'm wondering if anyone knows or has noticed a difference between the two in...

1) length of time before, and overall incidence of reversion to flight

2) hardiness or rates of reproduction

3) nutritional content (do the wings provide meaningful amounts of fiber or other nutritional content missing in the wingless?)

4) ease of handling them (does one tend to be able to jump more, farther, run faster, etc.)

5) mantis preference (I wonder if the wings, though flightless, might add a visual advantage to acceptability for the mantids?)

I' currently have cultures of each (as I couldn't decide which to pick when I was ordering, ). I haven't found any noticeable differences between the two, but they're my first melanogaster cultures too. I was just hoping those with more experience with both of them might have better insight on the dilemma. I just haven't found any information or opinions to help me decide which is the better option in the long run between the two. I need to decide on either one or the other to culture, as I'm not going to be keeping both. Thanks!

 

[Headspace]

I have a couple of apterous cultures for the winter; I plan to order some more apterous samples from Ward's natural science (science supply company) to freshen the gene pool come spring. For wild type cultures, I just collect them from outside and culture them. They're always the hardiest.

The mantids that I raise seem to be more attracted to the flying ones; the apterous ones seem a lot more sluggish. I haven't noticed any anecdotal evidence that one is better nutritionally than another, although my current batch of mantids was raised entirely on drosophila up until they switched to crickets.

 

[PhilinYuma]

I' currently have cultures of each (as I couldn't decide which to pick when I was ordering, ). I haven't found any noticeable differences between the two, but they're my first melanogaster cultures too. I was just hoping those with more experience with both of them might have better insight on the dilemma. I just haven't found any information or opinions to help me decide which is the better option in the long run between the two. I need to decide on either one or the other to culture, as I'm not going to be keeping both. Thanks

No dilemma for your mantids, Katnapper! Same hardiness, same reproductive rate and fecundity (so far as I can tell) same nutritional value (remember, they are genetic variants of the same species). The wings do not contribute to nutritional content. You may have noticed that predatory insects frequently ignore their prey's wings.

Reversion to a winged state is not likely to occur before your culture gives out. I agree with Headspace that mantids like the more active flying FFs. The only problem is that they are much harder to contain.

It might be interesting to keep both strains through a few generations and take notes for comparison, but I bet the mantids won't care.

 

[idolomantis]

only difference is that you'll find wings on the bottom by the flightless ones.

 

[kamakiri]

only difference is that you'll find wings on the bottom by the flightless ones.

Exactly what I was going to say.

 

[kakistos]

Here they sell only D. melanogaster without wings or D. hydrei with malformed wings (vestigal, you call it?). I use the D. hydrei to put a few flies in the enclosure, because they are way slower and can be catched by hand. I use the D. melanogaster to throw into a large enclosure.

 

[nasty bugger]

Don't know any difinitive answers, but I'd think that the wings flapping would be a visual attractant to the predatory nature of the mantis. If you dust them with nutrient I would think that the wings would hold more nutrient, especially if you mist them prior to dusting.

I do know that my flightless mel does do some hopping around, alot of it. They seem to jump away when they get a chance with the lid open at feeding time, even after cooling them down.

I do lack experience and knowledge, so all my thinking is purely speculation, and flashbacks from the few threads Ive read.

 

[Orin]

The question is how much of the wing muscle is missing on the wingless.