Inter- and intrapopulational variation in digging in Drosophila melanagaster larvae.

The digging behavior of larvae from the following strains of Drosophila melanogaster was studied: Oregon R-c, taxi, yellow, and vestigial. It was found that the time of stay of preadults in the culture medium, the number of larvae, and the illumination conditions can modify this behavior. The presence of this characteristic depends on the genetic composition of the population: the larvae of each strain used exhibited their own particular pattern of dispersal throughout the culture medium, independent of the experimental conditions under which this behavior was surveyed.