Population Ecology Using D.melanogaster and D. Virilis

In the ?Population Ecology Experiment?, fruit flies were used to investigate the factors that enhanced and limited population growth in these species alone as well as in the presence of other species. In this experiment, the effects of high and low population densities in the same size habitat were compared. The habitat was a glass vial containing approximately equal amounts of food and moisture and kept at the same temperature as the other vials that were involved in this project.

[...] In both high and low density, they produced far more offspring than did Virilis in each case. This higher efficiency of breeding also carried over to the competition experiment, where Molanogaster beat out Virilis to be the dominant species. Thus, our initial hypothesis that Virilis would be superior due to their size was not supported by the data, with a higher capacity for breeding being the more important factor in dominance amongst species competition. Within the high and low density experiments, the flies with higher density always yielded a higher amount of flies. [...]

[...] The two populations both started at eight individuals, and after three generations, none of the groups had more than one living D. Virilis, while all but one had a much larger number of D. Melanogaster than in the beginning. The one group that had only three surviving D. Melanogaster flies did not have a single surviving D. Virilis, keeping to the general trend. Data: D. Low Density High Density melanogaster start Finish start Finish Adults larvae Adults larvae pupa pupa Group start Finish start Finish Adults larvae Adults larvae pupa pupa Group Group start Finish start Finish Figure Figure Figure Figure Figure Discussion: In the end, the tiny D. [...]