A PRELIMINARY STUDY ON THE BEHAVIOUR OF Drosophila melanogaster LARVA TO DIFFERENT OIL SAMPLES
ANAMIKA ADHIKARY *
Department of Zoology, Gauhati University, Guwahati, India.
DEBAKSHI DEB
Kendriya Vidyalaya Lumding, Hojai, Assam 782447, India.
*Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Abstract
Larvae of Drosophila melanogaster are known to show attraction to wide variety of chemicals. In this study, the behaviour of third instar larvae of D. melanogaster to four commonly available oil samples, namely, mustard; coconut; almond and sunflower oil was studied by plate assay technique. Response Index (RI) was calculated for each of the oil samples. Results suggest that all there as: Coconut > Sunflower > Mustard and almond. Of all the oil samples, coconut oil displfour samples studied act as attractants to the larvae. RI in decreasing order of the oil samples aays the highest RI. This observation might be attributed to the chemical composition of the oil. This is a preliminary study to understand the chemotaxis behaviour of Drosophila larvae towards oil. Further, detailed studies are essential to have better insights.
Keywords: Drosophila melanogaster, response index, behaviour