Drosophila

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Drosophila
Black-bellied fruit fly (Drosophila melanogaster), male

Black-bellied fruit fly ( Drosophila melanogaster ), male

Systematics
Class : Insects (Insecta)
Order : Fly (Diptera)
Subordination : Flies (Brachycera)
Family : Fruit flies (Drosophilidae)
Subfamily : Drosophilinae
Genre : Drosophila
Scientific name
Drosophila
Fallén , 1823

Drosophila is a genus from the family of fruit flies (Drosophilidae). The name "Drosophila" is made up of the ancient Greek δρόσος drósos "dew" and φίλα phíla "(the) loving one".

The genus is about to split up, as it includes around 1500 species, some of which differ considerably in appearance, behavior and reproduction. Therefore, the genus was broken down into many sub-genera. As genetic studies have shown, some sub-genera are more closely related to genera outside the Drosophila group than to most of the sub-genera within this species complex.

The Drosophila genus also includes the black-bellied fruit fly ( Drosophila melanogaster ), which is the best-known representative of the group as a common model organism in genetics . It is currently in the subgenus Sophophora , which will be raised to a genus following a revision of the Drosophila group. The well-known Drosophila melanogaster will then be called Sophophora melanogaster . An application to the ICZN to keep the common scientific name by declaring Drosophila melanogaster to be a type species was rejected in March 2010. The decision was announced on April 1, 2010 after almost three years of discussion. The type species of the genus is still Drosophila funebris .

Sub-genera (selection)

Due to its biodiversity, the genus Drosophila is divided into various sub-genera, some of whose names are anagrams of the generic name such as Dorsilopha or Phloridosa . The largest subgenus is Sophophora with 332 species, which contains the well-known Drosophila (Sophophora) melanogaster .

  • Chusqueophila
  • Dorsilopha
  • Drosophila
  • Dudaica
  • Phloridosa
  • Psilodorha
  • Sophophora (332 species, including D. melanogaster and D. suzukii )
  • Siphlodora

literature

  • G. Bächli and H. Burla: Insecta Helvetica 7: Diptera - Drosophilidae. Swiss Entomological Society, 1985
  • Christian Dahmann (Ed.): Drosophila: Methods and Protocols. Humana Press / Springer, Berlin 2008.

Web links

Commons : Drosophila  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Kim van der Linde and Amir Yassin: The fruit fly formerly known as Drosophila. New Scientist dated June 22, 2010
  2. ↑ Rex Dalton: What's in a name? Fly world is abuzz. In: Nature. 464, 2010, p. 825, doi : 10.1038 / 464825a .
  3. ↑ Bächli, G. (1999-2014). TaxoDros: The Database on Taxonomy of Drosophilidae. http://www.taxodros.uzh.ch/