Abstract

LAVAGNINO, Nicolás J.  and  FANARA, Juan J.. Phenotypic plasticity for Drosophila melanogaster (Diptera: Drosophilidae) larval olfactory behaviour in response to whole fruit olfactory stimuli. Rev. Soc. Entomol. Argent. [online]. 2011, vol.70, n.3-4, pp.369-372. ISSN 0373-5680.

Drosophila melanogaster Meigen 1830 (Diptera: Drosophilidae) is the quintessential insect model organism. However, with a few exceptions, ecological features of this species have been poorly investigated. In the present work we describe a behavioural assay to quantify olfactory behaviour of D. melanogaster larvae in response to complex olfactory stimuli that are present in the natural environments, i. e.: rotten fruits that act as hosts in nature. Results obtained using this assay reveal that there is intra-population genetic variation and phenotypic plasticity for the character in a natural population from west-central Argentina.

Keywords : Olfactory behaviour; Natural variation; Phenotypic plasticity; Drosophila melanogaster; Behavioural assay.

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