Acknowledgements

John Skillcorn
Costa Rica
Last update: 08 April 2002

Drosophila - the fruit flies, and in particular D. melanogaster - are used by many as a staple food of Dendrobatid frogs.  The fact that they can be cultured inexpensively, in little space in large numbers and are readily taken by all Dendrobatid frogs make them a very good food source.  However, we as breeders are all concerned with the fact that, if we feed largely Drosophila melanogaster, we are not giving the frogs the varied diet they would certainly be getting in the wild state.

During the summer months it is perfectly possible to use a sweep net to collect all manner of small invertebrate types from a field of long grass, and our frogs benefit from this great variety.  During the winter, however, we have to rely on what we can culture artificially.

What follows is a collection of pages which give details of maintaining this group of insects, with reference to many of the species freely available from the wild both in UK and on the Continent, not to mention the rest of the world.

I am indebted to Professor Bryan Shorrocks whose book Drosophila (ISBN 0-08-025941-3) I have used in the preparation of these pages.  
The superb illustrations in his book are by Hilary Burn.

I believe that by using a variety of Drosophila species we are going some way in counterbalancing the effects of a monotonous diet.