Drosophila Flies

Drosophila - flies, known today from school to even people living in the High North. In biology class, the second law of Mendel is studied on the example of these insects. The fruit flies are the inhabitants of the southern regions, but in the summer, along with boxes of fruits and vegetables, they can even reach up to 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 yellow-brown tones with black stripes across the abdomen. In Drosophila, sexual dimorphism is pronounced. Males are much smaller than females.But a small female can also be a young female. If you managed to catch flies, their sex is determined with a magnifying glass: in males the tip of the abdomen is completely black. On the pair photo of fruit flies the distinctive signs of the male are clearly visible.

Interesting!

When flying, female Drosophila sometimes makes a thin squeak similar to that of a mosquito, but a tone higher.

Life cycle

Drosophila fly lays eggs in a moist substrate rich in organic matter. It does not have to be rotting fruit, although, other things being equal, the female would 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 by 2 times.

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

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

A young female that has emerged from the pupa can start mating no earlier than 12 hours after “birth”. Drosophila female mates once and saves male sperm for further use.

Fly life cycle

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 the mechanisms of inheritance.

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

Habitat

Before the advent of civilization, the fruit flies dwelt in tropical and subtropical areas, where it was warm and there were many rotting sweet fruits. With the development of civilization, flies turned into a synanthropic species, accompanying people everywhere. Both adult flies and their eggs are distributed throughout the world.

Due to the fact that much 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 live in huge quantities in gardens and vineyards. There, no one pays attention to them, since these flies do not harm healthy fruits. But after harvesting, fruit flies along with fruit boxes leave for different parts of the world.

Drosophila has a fairly wide nutritional framework. They eat not only rotten fruit. They easily multiply in pot with sour food. There are always a lot of them at vegetable warehouses, wineries and beer factories, in bakeries, at canned fruit factories. It attracts flies to the smell of roaming yeast.

On a note!

As a medium for breeding flies are interested in wine and beer pulp. Heaps of wine otzhimok - paradise for fruit flies, which because of this, even got another name "wine front sight". But flies do not drink wine and beer, although they are actively drowned in them.

All favorable for life flies fruit flies places are quite far from human habitation. And the flies themselves fly badly and do not fly further 200 meters from the place of their birth. But fruit flies manage to emerge from nowhere in any housing.

Drosophila Flies

Where do fruit flies appear in the apartment

Maintaining almost sterile cleanliness in the home is the main pledge that the fruit flies will not appear in the apartment. But only under the condition that it is possible to maintain the same sterility throughout the house. Fruit flies will settle in the garbage chute, which is taken out once a day. Or a neighbor who holds a bowl of fruit on the table and does not really care about their freshness. At the first opportunity, Drosophila will manifest itself in the apartment.

There are several ways from which the fruit flies come from:

• “Come” to the house with purchased fruits;
• insects or eggs can be brought into the house on shoes or clothes;
• fly from the garbage chute, if it is in the house;
• penetrate from the next apartment through the vent;
• 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 heat and food. A popular planting plant with tea brewing means another feast for fruit flies.

It is enough not to remove the leftover food from domestic animals in time, and small flies hover above them. Spilled a drop of tea, milk, juice will serve as food for these insects.The garbage bin, which was not taken out on time, is a paradise for breeding.

If there is a neighbor in the house who is seriously addicted to terrarium or aquarism, he breeds fruit flies for his fish or reptiles.

On a note!

The chance of a fruit fly escaping from an enthusiastic owner of lizards or fish is small enough; a wingless species is preferable for breeding for food.

How to get rid of fruit flies

Ways to fight flies Drosophila

Fruit flies are not dangerous for humans, unless by chance swallow their eggs. If the eggs do not dissolve in the stomach, the released larva will cause an abdominal intestinal miasis in a severe form.

And one more nuisance: Drosophila bite. Not always, only in the autumn period, completely copying behavior room fly. What fruit flies want to achieve with this, it is not clear, they don’t drink blood.

The biggest problem of fruit flies is a serious damage to the reputation of the house. What kind of hostess is this, if in the apartment flies breeds. For ridding the house of small flies need a whole range of measures.

1. For disposal of fruit flies have to take up the general cleaning of the house.It will be necessary to sort out all the fruits and vegetables, including potatoes, to throw out the rotten fruit.
2. Check the ground in flower pots. If the larvae are found in the earthen coma, the soil should be thoroughly dried, and it is better to change it. You can also shed the soil with insecticide. For example By agita.
3. Check and wash bowls from pets. breeding.
4. Flying around the house flies destroy any household insecticide, of which the most popular Raptor.
5. In order not to breed flies in the future, the trash can will need to make every day.
6. Do not leave dirty dishes in the sink for a few days.
7. Feed animals should be given by the hour and removed after 15 minutes if it is not eaten.
8. Fruits and vegetables should be stored in the refrigerator.
9. Flowers better to feed a special fertilizer. Then a Drosophila accidentally entering the apartment will not have a chance to leave offspring.