#drosophila

[v-spicata]

A life size painting of Drosophila melanogaster.

The whole thing is approximately 2.5mm in length, I painted it under microscope with a single one of my eyelashes glued to a piece of dowel.

This one turned out the best of my attempts but I slipped and made a streak I had to repair. It's tricky when a single twitch of the brush can obliterate the entire painting in one go.

[chimericmacandcheese]

fruit fly needlefelt sculpture made for a professor, nickel for scale

It has a pipecleaner skeleton, allowing it to stand on its own and have a mild degree of posability

The wings were very challenging, as I wanted them to look transparent but couldn’t achieve that look with roving. At the very least it looks like a fly, I suppose…

[bowelfly]

the researcher who hired me to make this illustration commissioned me again for a recently published scientific paper about fly neurology.

[hellsitegenetics]

BEHOLD! Could any truly time-rich person who enjoys gene memes actually genuinely attempt an invite of humble drosophila? To awe the tumblrinas with this task of devotion and enviable skill? All of you, gaze upon my superior posting ability!

String identified: ! C a t t-c g acta g attt a t a? T a t ta t t ta t a a ? A , ga tg at!

Closest match: Drosophila melanogaster strain ANU-1 mitochondrion, complete genome Common name: Common Fruit Fly

(image source)

[collemblogging]

a really stunning mimic, the Bald-Faced Hornet Fly (Spilomyia fusca)! Don't tell the hornets, but I think they might look cooler than their imitated species.

[srsurchin]

recent doodle of my oc phil the fruit fly

[luciliascarcass]

Cool unfinished sketch of a fly girl!

[bpod-bpod]

Wing Tips

X-rays can cause DNA damage in cells, changing how genes are switched on or expressed – but do all cells respond in the same way? Here, researchers aim X-rays at the developing wings of a fruit fly (Drosophila), comparing 'zapped' wings (bottom) with untreated ones (above). While the X-rays have little effect on the expression of two genes in distinct wing regions (highlighted in pink and yellow), researchers used these genes as beacons when looking at the effects of X-rays on other genes in the same areas. Bioinformatics helps to analyse huge numbers of single cells, finding X-rays affect expression differently in different tissues. A cell’s response to DNA damage may also vary with its position in the cell cycle – giving different outcomes if hit during crucial activities like DNA replication or division. These insights may guide future X-ray ‘radiotherapy’, where deliberate DNA damage aims to encourage cancer cells to self-destruct.

Written by John Ankers

Image from work by Joyner Cruz, and colleagues

Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA

Image originally published with a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Published in eLife, February 2026

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