Sunday, February 08, 2009

Amorous fruit flies

A pair of the fruit flies I am breeding to feed my current spider.


They are quite enthusiastic about the breeding part of the project, maybe not as much about the last act.

From Wikipedia:
"Females become receptive to courting males at about 8-12 hours after emergence. Males perform a sequence of five behavioral patterns to court females. First, males orient themselves while playing a courtship song by horizontally extending and vibrating their wings. Soon after, the male positions itself at the rear of the female's abdomen in a low posture to tap and lick the female genitalia. Finally, the male curls its abdomen, and attempts copulation."
Actually, from watching the process, I would include a second step, before the tapping, etc.: the male chases the female all over the place, both of them running. This couple had paused for a breather during the chase.

Too bad they won't get a chance to raise a family; they are already in the spider's jar.

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2 comments:

  1. Yikes...well two less fruit flies to run around my kitchen and land on my bananas...guess i should get me a spider.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Every home should have its own pet spider.

    :D

    ReplyDelete

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