Can somebody explain the fruit thing? I’ve seen fruit flies demolish fresh fruit. The amount of yeast biomass on them must be negligible at that point. Do the eggs/larvae spread the yeast before they start eating?
The fruit flies you’ve seen eating fresh fruit are probably Drosophila suzukii (spotted wing fruit fly). Most (all?) other Drosophila species (including the model organism Drosophila melanogaster) only feed on rotting fruit. Though they’ll consume the sugars too, not just the microorganisms. So standard lab diets include sugar along with yeast and often cornmeal.
There are also some more distantly related flies that feed on fresh fruit and are commonly called fruit flies, eg Ceratitis capitata (Mediterranean fruit fly)
I’m sure the meme is apocryphal, and it’s not entirely correct. Fruit flies do eat yeast, yes…but they also eat the sugars in the fermenting fruit, not just the microorganisms causing fruit decay. I don’t know about the larvae at all, though.
Can somebody explain the fruit thing? I’ve seen fruit flies demolish fresh fruit. The amount of yeast biomass on them must be negligible at that point. Do the eggs/larvae spread the yeast before they start eating?
The fruit flies you’ve seen eating fresh fruit are probably Drosophila suzukii (spotted wing fruit fly). Most (all?) other Drosophila species (including the model organism Drosophila melanogaster) only feed on rotting fruit. Though they’ll consume the sugars too, not just the microorganisms. So standard lab diets include sugar along with yeast and often cornmeal.
There are also some more distantly related flies that feed on fresh fruit and are commonly called fruit flies, eg Ceratitis capitata (Mediterranean fruit fly)
I’m sure the meme is apocryphal, and it’s not entirely correct. Fruit flies do eat yeast, yes…but they also eat the sugars in the fermenting fruit, not just the microorganisms causing fruit decay. I don’t know about the larvae at all, though.