PRELIMINARY SURVEY OF DROSOPHILA FAUNA IN AND AROUND BALLARI DISTRICT, KARNATAKA
SNEHA SUMA HEGDE *
Department of Studies in Zoology, Vijayanagara Sri Krishnadevaraya University, Ballari-583104, India.
. MEHAROJ
Department of Studies in Zoology, Vijayanagara Sri Krishnadevaraya University, Ballari-583104, India.
RAMJI SWETHA
Department of Studies in Zoology, Vijayanagara Sri Krishnadevaraya University, Ballari-583104, India.
RASHMI ABBIGERI
Department of Studies in Zoology, Vijayanagara Sri Krishnadevaraya University, Ballari-583104, India.
. MEGHA
Department of Studies in Zoology, Vijayanagara Sri Krishnadevaraya University, Ballari-583104, India.
*Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Abstract
A survey on Drosophila was conducted from October 2018 to March 2019 (winter to early summer). Drosophila’s were collected from 15 different localities of Ballari. Bottle trapping method and net sweeping methods were employed for the collection of fruit flies. The collected fruit flies were cultured in culture bottles containing wheat cream agar medium. A total of 733 Drosophila’s were collected amongst which 260 were males and 473 were females. The current study revealed that a total of 08 species were identified. D. melanogaster and D. ananassae were found to be common in all the fifteen regions suggesting their dominance in Ballari. (North – East part of Karnataka). The study reveals that not only the number of Drosophila species varies among different places; but also the number of individuals belonging to same species differs among different places under study. In the present study, consideration of the common and abundant species shows that numerical variation exists in regard to these species at all fifteen altitudes.
Keywords: Cinderella of genetics, fruit fly, habitat, diversity, genome