Drosophila flies

Drosophila are flies known today from school even to people living in the Far North. In biology classes, Mendel’s second law is studied using these insects as an example. Fruit flies are inhabitants of the southern regions, but in summer, along with boxes of fruits and vegetables, they can even reach 60 degrees north latitude.

Description

Drosophila flies are very small insects with a body length of 1.5-3 mm. The eyes are red. Body color in tan with black stripes across the abdomen. In Drosophila, sexual dimorphism is pronounced. Males are much smaller than females. But a young female may also be a small individual. If it was possible to catch flies, their sex is determined using a magnifier: in males, the tip of the abdomen is completely black. In the pair photo of Drosophila, the distinctive features of the male are clearly visible.

Interesting!

The female Drosophila during flight sometimes emits a thin squeak, similar to the squeak of a mosquito, but a tone higher.

Life cycle

The Drosophila fly lays eggs in a moist organic-rich substrate. It does not have to be rotting fruit, although ceteris paribus, the female will prefer such a carbohydrate-rich environment. Development time from egg to imago 10 days at a temperature of 25 ° C. Already at 18 ° C, development slows down 2 times.

Under favorable conditions, the Drosophila larva emerges from the egg a day after the female makes the laying. The length of the newly minted individual is 3.5 cm. The offspring grows only 5 days and during this time manages to molt 2 times: 24 hours after hatching and after 48 hours. Eggs and larvae are well adapted for existence in a semi-liquid environment, since the fly lays eggs on semi-rotten fruits.

At first, the larvae float on the surface, and before pupation go deep. In the active period of life, they eat bacteria that decompose fruits and the substances of the fruit itself. On the fifth day, transformation into a chrysalis begins and lasts 5 days.

A young female, emerging from the pupa, can begin mating no earlier than 12 hours after "birth". The female Drosophila mates once and saves the male sperm for future use.

Interesting!

Due to this fact, Drosophila are suitable for breeding in laboratories. You can always catch a virgin female and mate with the right male to study inheritance mechanisms.

The time that an adult Drosophila lives is usually 1–2 months, depending on environmental conditions. At high air temperatures, the life span of an individual insect is reduced. Behind lifetime the female lays 400 eggs of 0.5 mm in size. With a short life cycle, the generation turnover increases and the number of flies in the hot season increases rapidly.

Habitat

Before the advent of civilization, fruit flies lived in tropical and subtropical areas, where it was warm and had a lot of rotting sweet fruits. With the development of civilization, flies were re-qualified as synanthropic, accompanying humans everywhere. Both adult flies and their eggs spread throughout the world.

Due to the fact that a significant part of the planet is too cold for this kind of flies, Drosophila prefer to settle in rooms built by man. Moreover, people will always find food for flies. In the southern regions, flies in large numbers live in orchards and vineyards.There, no one pays attention to them, since these flies do not bring harm to healthy fruits. But after harvesting, Drosophila and fruit crates leave for different parts of the world.

Drosophila has rather wide food borders. They eat not only rotten fruits. They easily breed in dishes with sour food. There are always a lot of them in vegetable stores, wineries and breweries, in bakeries, in canned fruit factories. The smell of fermenting yeast attracts flies there.

On a note!

As a breeding ground for flies, wine and beer pulp are of interest. Heaps of wine extracts - paradise for Drosophila, which because of this even got another name "wine fly". But flies do not drink wine and beer, although they actively drown in them.

All places favorable for the life of Drosophila flies are quite far from human habitation. And the flies themselves fly poorly and do not fly further than 200 meters from their birthplace. But fruit flies manage to appear from nowhere in any housing.

Where do Drosophila come from

Maintaining almost sterile cleanliness in the home is the main guarantee that Drosophila do not appear in the apartment. But only on condition that it will be possible to maintain the same sterility throughout the house. Fruit flies settle in the garbage chute, which is taken out once a day. Or a neighbor who holds a vase of fruit on the table and does not really monitor their freshness. At the first opportunity, Drosophila will show themselves in the apartment.

There are several ways Drosophila comes from:

• “Come” to the house with purchased fruit;
• insects or eggs can be brought into the house on shoes or clothes;
• fly out of the garbage chute, if it is in the house;
• penetrate from the neighboring apartment through the ventilation hole;
• have long been living indoors somewhere in a flower pot.

Flies of this species can live and breed in flower pots, as there is always rotting organic matter in the soil. And that means warmth and food. Popular among flower gardeners, dressing plants with tea leaves means another feast for fruit flies.

It’s not enough time to remove food debris after pets, and small flies already curl over them. A spilled drop of tea, milk, juice will serve as food for these insects. An undelivered bin is a paradise for breeding.

If there is a neighbor in the house who is seriously interested in terrarium or aquarium studies, he is engaged in the cultivation of Drosophila for his fish or reptiles.

On a note!

The chance of Drosophila escaping from the enthusiastic owner of lizards or fish is small enough; for breeding for food, a wingless variety is preferable.

How to get rid of Drosophila

Fruit flies are not dangerous to humans, unless accidentally swallow their eggs. If the eggs do not dissolve in the stomach, the emerging larva will cause severe intestinal intestinal myiasis.

And one more nuisance: Drosophila bite. Not always, only in the autumn, completely copying the behavior housefly. What fruit flies want to achieve with this is not clear, they do not drink blood.

The biggest problem from Drosophila flies is serious damage to the reputation of the house. What kind of mistress is this if she flies flies in an apartment. For rid the house of small flies need a whole range of measures.

1. For rid of Drosophila have to take up the general cleaning of the house. It will be necessary to sort out all fruits and vegetables, including potatoes, to discard rotten fruits.
2. Check the ground in flower pots. If larvae are found in an earthen coma, the soil must be thoroughly dried, and it is better to change it. You can also shed the soil with an insecticide. For example Agitation.
3. Check and wash your pet bowls. breeding.
4. Household flies are destroyed by any household insecticide, of which the most popular Raptor.
5. In order not to breed flies in the future, the bin will need to be taken out every day.
6. Do not leave dirty dishes in the sink for several days.
7. Animal feed must be dispensed by the hour and cleaned after 15 minutes if it is not eaten.
8. Fruits and vegetables should be stored in the refrigerator.
9. It is better to feed flowers with a special fertilizer. Then Drosophila accidentally got into the apartment will not have a chance to leave offspring.