Drosophila melanogaster Meigen, 1830

Vinegar fly, Drosophila melanogaster Meigen, 1830 (Diptera: Drosophilidae) is considered one of the key model organisms for biological research globally. More interesting, as related to the book of Van Huis and Tomberlin (2017), is the production of this fly as a protein source. Adults will colonize a variety of decomposing vegetable and fruit matter. In some cases they are known to colonize decomposing animal feces or remains. Adults are quite small (a few millimeters) and will lay eggs in such resources previously described. The eggs will hatch resulting in larvae that pass through several molts before becoming pupae, which then become adults. The life cycle of this insect is quite fast (one or two weeks) depending on environmental conditions.