Speaking up for the annoying fruit fly

Fruit flies can be truly annoying when they are buzzing around your living room or landing in your wine. But we have much to thank these tiny nuisances for—they revolutionized biological and medical science.

Examining the chemicals involved in insect mating

It's almost Valentine's Day, and love is in the air. Or in the waxy coating on your skin, if you are a vinegar fly. That's where flies encounter pheromones that play an important role in regulating sexual attraction.

Foraging Drosophila flies are open for new microbial partners

In a comprehensive ecological study, a team of scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology in Jena examined three different species of the genus Drosophila and their interactions with their natural food resources, ...

Video: How to catch fruit flies

You can catch more flies with honey than with vinegar—or can you? In this video, Reactions explains the chemistry behind why fruit flies love vinegar so much that some entomologists call them "vinegar flies":

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