Drs. David Grimaldi and Valerie Schawaroch of the American Museum of Natural History have been awarded a grant to study the anatomy, habits, distribution, and evolutionary relationships of a group of fruitflies used as an experimental foundation by many researchers in genetics and developmental biology. The common laboratory fruitfly, Drosophila melanogaster, is probably better known than any other animal species on earth. Serious study of the fly began in 1910, when it was first used as the model organism for genetics. Drosophila melanogaster actually belongs to a group of 175 named species, the melanogaster species group, all of which live naturally in tropical forests of Africa, Eurasia, Australia, and Pacific Islands. Some species, like D. melanogaster, breed in a great variety of fruits and vegetables, and have become widespread (even agricultural pests) wherever people have settled. The diversity of species and habits, their ease of lab culture, and unique knowledge of the model species, has made the melanogaster species group an ideal subject for all aspects of comparative biology.
Nevertheless, accurate identification of species by specialists and especially other biologists like geneticists is very difficult. Distributions of individual species are poorly documented, and introductions of exotic species are therefore difficult to detect. Collections of major natural history museums already harbor new species, awaiting complete description, naming, and classification. The goal of the PIs is to rectify deficiencies in the basic systematics of the melanogaster species group, by production of a hard copy and digital synthetic monograph which will treat the anatomy, habits, distribution, and relationships of each species in detail, including newly described ones. This monograph will stand as a major reference, and will be accompanied by an interactive, lavishly illustrated CD-ROM for identification of species. The package will be of widespread use to students, laboratory technicians, quarantine entomologists, and various biologists, and will greatly facilitate all aspects of comparative biology wherever these flies are used, from genetics and physiology to development and evolution.
