Jack Bennett

Behavior and single gene substitution inDrosophila melanogaster. I. Mating and courtship differences withw, cn, andbw Loci

The effect of single allele substitutions into an isogenic background in Oregon-R inbred lines of Drosophila melanogaster on courtship and mating patterns has been studied. A comparison has been made between the white locusw, wco,we, the wild typew+,cn, bw, andcn bw to test the effect of eye pigmentation in influencing courtship and mating patterns. It was found thatw, we,wco,cn, andbw females were more successful in mating than were wild-type andcn bw females,cn bw females being less successful than wild-type females. Also,w andcn bw males were equally successful in mating but less successful than wild-type males during the 20-min test period. The mutant males performed as well as the wild-type after courtship was initiated. The behavioral parameters measured were (1) courtship latency, the time from exposure of male to female until orientation; (2) mating speed, the time from beginning of orientation of male to female until successful copulation; and (3) copulation time.

Overpopulation Is the Problem

Overpopulation Is the Problem I greatly enjoyed reading “The Millennium Assessment,” by Fred Powledge (BioScience 56: 880–886). It presented a reasonable program to discover how bad things are, which is, I suppose, frequently necessary to have fresh ammunition to use in trying to wake up our national leadership. What I find lacking in the whole approach, not only in this article but in the profession as a whole, is the failure to openly recognize that none of it matters as long as we fail to correct the underlying cause of nearly all of our problems: overpopulation. We already know enough to recognize that without a reduction of the population of humans, no proposed programs will have any real effect. The human population grows more rapidly than any ecological protection or amelioration program can be produced or take effect.

Venation Polymorphism and Genetic Variability in Drosophila melanogaster Loew

Experimental evidence indicates that phenocopy production may provide an inflated estimate of the importance of genetic variability and recombination in the production of venation phenodeviants.