Abstract
Drosophila ehrmanae [Parsons P. A., and Bock I. R. (1977). Aust. J. Zool. 25: 249–268] is a desiccation-sensitive species of undisturbed southern Australian temperate-zone rainforests. In this habitat category, nine Drosophila species have been collected, all belonging to the dominant Australian subgenus, Scaptodrosophila. Adults of these species are collected by sweeping foliage in damp habitats so providing temperature/desiccation information on adaptive behavioral selection within microhabitats. Biochemical and metabolic analyses of two common species of this subgenus indicate that D. ehrmanae should be alcohol dehydrogenase null with low ADH activity, should not utilize ethanol and its derivatives as a major resource, and therefore should not be attracted to these metabolites. Ultimately, such species may offer possibilities for behavioral/genetic analyses.
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References
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Acknowledgments
The enthusiasm of the late Joseph Grossfield was instrumental in initiating this project, as was the taxonomic expertise of Ian Bock. Indeed Grossfield collected and described the holotype of one of the nine species collected in this study, namely Drosophila (Scaptodrosophila) parsonsi J. Grossfield (in Bock, 1976). I am most grateful to these two scientists, as well as to Lee Ehrman, for collaboration and support for over 30 years. This contribution is an extrapolation from “Natural History of Lee Ehrman” in Behavior Genetics 35 (2005).
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Parsons, P.A. The Natural History of Drosophila ehrmanae . Behav Genet 36, 792–794 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10519-005-9036-5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10519-005-9036-5