Drosophila mercatorum

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Drosophila mercatorum
Dmerc-fem.tif
A D. mercatorum female
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Drosophila mercatorum
Binomial name
Drosophila mercatorum
Patterson and Wheeler, 1942

Drosophila mercatorum is a species of fruit fly in the genus Drosophila , repleta subgroup, described by Patterson and Wheeler in 1942. [1] [2] Thought to be native to South America, its subspecies D. m. mercatorum now has a cosmopolitan distribution. The other subspecies, D. m. pararepleta, is confined to the east of the Andes mountains.

It is used in scientific studies of parthenogenesis since it was discovered to have low levels of naturally occurring thelytoky. [3]

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References

  1. Bisby F.A.; Roskov Y.R.; Orrell T.M.; Nicolson D.; Paglinawan L.E.; Bailly N.; Kirk P.M.; Bourgoin T.; Baillargeon G.; Ouvrard D. (red.) (2011). "Species 2000 & ITIS Catalogue of Life: 2011 Annual Checklist". Species 2000: Reading, UK.
  2. Systema Dipterorum. Pape T. & Thompson F.C. (eds), 2011
  3. Templeton, A.R. (1979). "The parthenogenetic capacities and genetic structures of sympatric populations of Drosophila mercatorum and Drosophila hydei". Genetics. 92 (4): 1283–1293. PMC   1214071 . PMID   17248952.