Drosophila (redirected from vinegar fly)

Drosophila: see fruit fly.

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drosophila

Any member of about 1,000 species in the dipteran genus Drosophila, commonly known as fruit flies but also called vinegar flies. Some species, particularly D. melanogaster, are used extensively in laboratories for experiments on genetics and evolution because they are easy to raise and have a short life cycle (less than two weeks at room temperature). More data have been collected concerning the genetics of Drosophila than for any other animal. In the wild, its larvae live in rotting or damaged fruits or in fungi or fleshy flowers.

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Drosophila 

a genus of insects of the family Drosophilidae. The genus consists of small insects (about 3.5 mm long) with a bulging body and, as a rule, red eyes. Drosophila is distributed all over the world, with 25 species in the USSR. It is found everywhere, especially in vegetable and fruit storehouses. The larvae develop mainly in fermenting, frequently semiliquid, plant residues. Because of the ease with which they can be raised in the laboratory, the rapidity of their development, and the distinctness of segregation of species in the offspring, several species, chiefly the common banana fly (D. melanogaster), became a major object of genetics research after the work of the American scientist T. Morgan. Mutagenesis was studied quantitatively in Drosophila, and the first experimental mutations were induced in it. In nature, Drosophila is important as a carrier of yeast fungi.