Melanogaster Flightless Fruit Fly Culture - 1/16"

Notes on keeping fruit flies:

SOURCE: Frog Forum - Fruit Fly Culturing, Care and Feeding - Everything you need to know about Drosophila

The vestigial winged mutant of D. melanogaster, perhaps the most popular mutant, can become flighted at temperatures above about 81 ° (27.5 °). This is because there is a malformation in a protein used for wing development, caused by their genetic mutation, and the warmer temperatures allow this malformation to be corrected. However, these flighted variants are still genetically "vestigial", and if they are allowed to reproduce at normal temperatures, they will produce the original vestigial flies.

Keep in mind that high shelves in a room are going to be a degree or two warmer than lower shelves, because warm rises and cool air falls.

Humidity and moisture are related factors to take into consideration. In less humid environments, it often helps to slightly increase the amount of water used beyond that recommended by a recipe in order to have good humidity in the culture after a week or so while larvae are growing. D. melanogaster are more forgiving of unfavorable moisture conditions.

Finally, before we get into culturing methodology, mites are a common problem when culturing fruit flies. These mites are almost invisible to the naked eye, and are often present in low numbers, especially if you keep your cultures near your frog terrariums, which are natural mite habitats. However, mite numbers in cultures can rise to the extent that they can cause cultures to crash, reduce the productive life of a culture, and reduce the yield of flies. To reduce the chances of mites being a problem, we recommend that you use an anti-mite paper, usually sold in rolls. Place a sheet on your culturing shelf and place the cultures on top of it. It will prevent the spread of mites. (Roonami sells Dendrocare No Mite powder)

At the temperatures mentioned, D. melanogaster cultures should start producing after day 10. For D. hydei it takes 20-23 days. Discard cultures after about day 30, or at least move older cultures to a different area because mites tend to become a problem the longer the cultures are left.