About Drosophila melanogaster:
- It is colloquially known as the fruit fly.
- Habitat: It lives in a wide range of habitats.
- Native habitats include those in the tropical regions of the Old World, but the common fruit fly has been introduced to almost all temperate regions of the world.
- Physical Description of Drosophila melanogaster:
- Drosophila matures through complete metamorphosis.
- It is covered in a chitinous exoskeleton; has three main body segments; and has three pairs of segmented legs.
- They are easily drawn towards the smell of any food source.
- Their eyes are sensitive to slight differences in light intensity.
- Food Habit: The fruit flies lives primarily on plant material. The adults thrive on rotting plants.
- Reproduction: Reproduction in Drosophila is rapid. A single pair of flies can produce hundreds of offspring within a couple of weeks, and the offspring become sexually mature within one week.
- They are sexually dimorphic (males and females are different), making it is quite easy to differentiate the sexes.
- It remains one of the most commonly used model organisms for biomedical science.
