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Fruitflies (Drosophila)

Giant Fruit Fly (Drosophila hydei): Fruit flies are an ideal food for many newly metamorphosed amphibians and can form a big part of the diet of smaller species such as the Dendrobates, and small Hyla species. Giant Fruit Flies are as the name suggests one of the larger Drosophila species.

Vestigial-winged Fruit Fly (Drosophila melanogaster): The ideal first food for many amphibian species, and a staple diet for small Epipedobates, these are a smaller species than D.hydei and reproduce much more readily.

Culturing Fruit Flies:

1. First you will need to prepare you culture vessels, pierce a small hole (5-10mm) in the lid of the vessel with a pencil or similar.

2. Break off a small amount of cotton wool and use it to bung the hole in the lid, this will provide ventilation for the flies but will stop escape.

3. Mash an old banana (the riper the better) into a pulp and spoon a 2cm layer into the bottom of your culture vessels, you may also use mashed potato flakes or a commercially produced Drosophila diet.

4. Sprinkle a small amount of dried bread making yeast over the banana.

5. Screw up a sheet of paper towel and place in the vessel this will provide the flies with dry area to perch and a place to hide.

6. You are now ready to introduce the flies; open your original culture and sprinkle a number of flies into the cup. You may need a friend to continuously tap the cup gently on the worktop to stop the flies from climbing back out.

7. Click the lid on firmly and ensure the hole in the lid is bunged.

8. Store the culture in a dark, well ventilated area, you will notice that after a few days the flies in the culture will die off, this nothing to worry about, the culture will be full of eggs, and if you look closely you may spot small maggots (often larger than the flies) in the banana.

9. When the culture starts to fill with flies start new cultures to keep a constant supply.

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