Can You Tell the Sex of a Fly?

That's cute! Actually, I did learn how to sex fruit flies in high school while taking a microbiology class. We had to raise the fruit flies as part of a test grade.

 

Please oh wise one with the first name of ABC... share your insight...
How do you do it?

Really, I want to know... Really I do...

 

OK, hypothetical situation: Let's say you're a student in California, and you are in abcgrad's situation. You are woefully unprepared and are not going to do well at determining the fruit flies' genders.

I have a solution!!


Remember: You're in California. Make a guess on about 75% of the bugs.

For the other 25%, it really doesn't matter what you put down as the gender. If you are right, then you're right! If you're wrong, you then say...

Oh...well, they may have been born male, but they were really meant to be female...

Voila! You have your A+.


Anyhoo...I'll never get to use this saying again, and this is the right time for it:

 

Sorry to derail your thread, Jon-Marc, really. It's Tinytim's fault. He always does it!

OK, here goes. A male fruit fly has a darker, more narrow abdomen and a female has a wider, lighter colored abdomen. If you want to see for yourself just put a small piece of rotten fruit in a jar and catch the flies after they come. Put them to sleep with some gas fumes, and gently use (plastic or rubber tipped) tweezers to take them out. Flip them over onto a sheet of paper and there you go. When they wake up, let them go again.

(Can you tell I REALLY liked that class?:laugh: )

 

If I were a betting man, I would bet that the flies respond differently to the gas.

The male flies are more impressed by the gas fumes; the females are repulsed by it.


(If the above is funny...I came up with it myself; if you find it less than funny, it was Tinytim's idea.)

 

ROFLOL! This thread really FLIES in the face of sanity!:laugh:

 

Hmmmm... should I? :laugh:

 

I dare ya!