Drosophila in honeydew dis 2012

drosophila in honeysewDros. Inf. Serv. 95 (2012)

Technique Notes

121

Technical adaptations of instant medium for Drosophila. Bizzo, L.,1,2 T. Vanderlinde,1 B. Wildemann,1,2 and D.C. De Toni1. 1Laboratório de drosofilídeos, sala 304C, Departamento de Biologia Celular, Embriologia e Genética, Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina. Campus Universitário Trindade, 88040-900, Florianópolis, Santa Catarina, Brasil; e-mail: [e-mail]; 2Programa de Pós-Graduação em Biologia Celular e do Desenvolvimento - Centro de Ciências Biológicas, Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina.

Like all holometabolous insects, Drosophila occupy two very different habitats during their life cycle. Females lay their eggs on a soft substrate that is suitable for larval development. After the larval stage, the pupal stage sets in, inciting the imagos to emerge. The length of the life cycle varies from one species to another and is dependent on environmental factors such as temperature, type of substrate, and humidity (Powell, 1997). The ease with which species can be cultured in the laboratory varies considerably. There is a clear correlation between the ease of culturing and the breadth of niche species, as well as with adaptation to be human commensals (Powell, 1997). Domestic species, including the most studied model, D. melanogaster, have a broad range of habitat preferences and do not have particularly narrow nutritional requirements (Powell, 1997). However, there are species of this genus, that, due to the irrestricted ecology, have no reported studies concerning their biological and behavioral features, precisely because of the difficulty of keeping these species in a laboratory environment (Hofmann et al., 1984). Drosophilids can live and forage on many types of substrates, such as flowers, fruit, leaves, sap, cactus, fungus, and also in decomposing organic matter. In a laboratory these substrates are replaced by culture medium in order to facilitate the maintenance