From owner-drosophila@net.bio.net Wed Jan 04 22:00:00 1995
Path: biosci!COMP.UARK.EDU!wetges
From: wetges@COMP.UARK.EDU (William J. Etges)
Newsgroups: bionet.drosophila
Subject: Re: Ovipositor Teeth
Date: 5 Jan 1995 08:55:05 -0800
Organization: BIOSCI International Newsgroups for Molecular Biology
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Message-ID: <199501051651.KAA07829@comp.uark.edu>
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At  3:02 PM 5/1/95 +0000, P.D. Worley wrote:
>Dear Drosophila People,
>  I am observing the usage and structure of ovipositor teeth on various
>species, in relation to breeding substrate use. I wondered if anyone knows of
>work that has previously been done concerning this area.
>
>Paul Worley
>E-mail  PAB2PDW@WEST-01.NOVELL.LEEDS.AC.UK

Paul,
                The old classic paper  Strasburger, M.  1932 Bau, Funktion
und Variabilitat des Darmtractus von Drosophila melanogaster Meiegen.
Zweitschrift fur Wissenschaftliche Zoologie 140:539-649 should get you on
your way. Its in German, so good luck.  There is a "well known" correlation
between mouthhook morphology and toughness of the breeding substrate, but
mouthhook morphology changes drastically with instar, so be careful. There
is an interesting diagram on p.259 in Barker and Starmer 1982 Ecological
Genetics and Evolution The Cactus-Yeast-Drosophila Model System, Academic
press showing mouthhook differences among desert species.  A student of
mine learned how to quantify mouthhook variation in all instars of D.
mojavensis several years ago in efforts to see if there was geographic
variation in tooth morphology associated with the use of different host
cacti.  Unfortunately, he never got to look at samples from more than one
population. Other than that, I'll have to do some looking around for more
specific references.

Bill

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William J. Etges                                "I wish the Bald Eagle
Department of Biol. Sciences            had not been chosen
University of Arkansas                      as the Representative
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wetges@comp.uark.edu                   Turkey is a much more
voice: (501) 575-6358                       respectable Bird,
FAX   (501) 575-4010                        and withal a true
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                                                   -Benjamin Franklin, from a
                                                   letter to his daughter.

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