[b said:Quote[/b] (Pyro @ Feb. 25 2004,11:20)]D. melanogaster is easier. One of the main reasons it is used as a model system is because it can be raised on nothing more than mashed bananas (and cue music... "Thirty thousand pounds of mashed bananas....") An important factor when they started working on them way back at the turn of the century.
[b said:Quote[/b] (joseph @ Feb. 25 2004,15:04)]Spec, generally speaking D. melanogaster are more prolific and less demanding as far as culture medium. The cultures don't actually need bakers yeast as they do just fine on the natural yeast found in/on the fruit. I raised flies for years without using any additional yeast, just apple sauce, potatoe flakes, and vineger. More complicated recipes do of course increase production.
And for seedlings D. melanogaster are much easier to squeeze in. They also have a much harder time walking off of a Drosera.
If you want quantity more than size, do the melanogaster. hydei's can be pigs, but i like the larger flies. (and so will my dart frogs! (; the thumbnails might need the melans though...)
Spec, I would be happy to provide you with references to the literature on the beginning of fruit fly genetics. The original stocks of D.melanogaster were trapped on the warfs where they dumped the rotten bananas after shipping. Since the bananas were worthless and just being dumped the father of fruit fly genetics would make a weekly run to the docks to scrape up some more fed for his flies. He never suplimented and almost all melanogaster stocks in use today date back to his first captured population. I thihnk that would argue for melanogaster being a more robust species[b said:Quote[/b] (Spectabilis73 @ Feb. 25 2004,09:30)]Not really... Hydei is definately easyer, IME, and the flies are much larger. Drosophylla melenogaster can not be raised cheifly on mashed bannanas, the cultures will brown and mold within 5 days. Every fruit fly culture needs some bakers yeast, this is what the flies eat.
Actually wild type melanogaster do fly and the ones that seem to pop out of nowhere in produce are melanogaster. The flightless strains you reciev are actually mutants and if you are really bored you could actually breed them in such a way to get flying ones back again.[b said:Quote[/b] (SnowyFalcon @ Feb. 26 2004,02:40)]Those are the ones that can fly though. You DO NOT want to culture them!!!! D. melanogaster and hydei are flightless. I think I'm going to go with D. melanogaster, as they reproduce faster and would fit in a Sarr seedling better.