#Drosophila #Advent Day15: In #Scaptomyza flava we meet our first fly with an unexpected larval substrate: https://www.leafmines.co.uk/html/Diptera/S.flava.htm . One of several leaf-miners in the genus, S. flava is a specialist on soft #Brassicaceae, where it can be a pest https://doi.org/10.30843/nzpp.2006.59.4546 . Its evolution is the subject of some phenomenal work on the evolution of herbivory https://www.pnas.org/doi/full/10.1073/pnas.1424656112 , providing a great intersection with one of the other great model organisms, #Arabidopsis https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-294X.2010.04901.x

And this is what Scaptomyza pallida looks like when awake!

#Drosophila #Scaptomyza #Diptera #Insect #Fly #Entomology #MacroPhotography

#Drosophila #Advent Day15: A new genus with Scaptomyza pallida, a widespread species that breeds as a generalist on decaying plants https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/BF00317362.pdf . Sister to the overly flamboyant Hawaiian Drosophila (#Idiomyia), the genus #Scaptomyza either invaded #Hawaii twice or evolved there and escaped three times https://academic.oup.com/genetics/article/209/1/1/5930949 . It is easy to sweep-net pallida from herbs or compost, and while these individuals may not look very pallid, other ones are more so http://www.drosophila.jp/jdd/class/030706/03070609.pdf