AN EASY METHOD OF CULTURING FRUITFLIES

Bob Worthington

I read with interest the article by Derek Petrie in the last Newsletter (go there) but as someone who is always rushing I need a simpler way of producing Drosophila cultures. The following method also keeps me out of trouble by not clogging up the freezer with culture medium.

I use large plastic sweet jars about 30cm high. They are covered with any convenient piece of fabric and used on their sides. The medium is a pint of orange juice (about half a litre), which is divided between three jars. To each jar a tablespoon of brown sugar is added together with sufficient Ready Brek to form a mix that will just flow along the jar. Two pieces of crumpled kitchen paper are put in for the larvae to pupate on. The medium is not cooked or microwaved in any way. Drosophila are added and the jars maintained at between 20 and 25°C. Above 30°C the cultures die off. Any reject fruits can be thrown into the medium but again, I do not cook these. These large jars make it easy to remove the Drosophila for dusting with vitamins.

I start three new jars each week, which provide sufficient Drosophila for about 30 frogs of the species D. truncatus, D. auratus and E. tricolor.