A Look Inside the Abdomen of the Spotted Wing Drosophila

One of the points of curiosity of spotted wing drosophila is that while most everyone refers to the high fecundity of the female and her ability to lay so many eggs, have you given a lot of thought as to how such a small fly has the capacity to produce so many eggs?
Well thanks to the work of Katrina Hunter of UCSC and my research assistant Monise Sheehan, we have a better idea.  Simply put, and graphically illustrated below by cutaways, the abdominal cavities of these adult females are completely packed with eggs.  These pictures of Katrina's square very well with what Monise has observed under the microscope, in that she can squeeze up to 25 eggs out of one individual female at one time.   

It's pretty impressive and it just underlines why we as growers, pest managers and researchers have to stay on the ball with spotted wing drosophila.
 

A single egg in comparison in size to the abdomen of a female spotted wing drosophila. Photo courtesy Steve Tjosvold and Monise Sheehan, UCCE

A view inside the abdomen of a female spotted wing drosophila. Photo courtesy Katrina Hunter.

Another view inside of the spotted wing drosophila abdomen. Note how numerous and closely packed the eggs are. Photo courtesy Katrina Hunter

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