Fruit Flies Medicate Offspring with Alcohol Female parasitic
wasps have successfully infected fruit fly larvae, shown here;
the wasps lay their eggs inside of the larvae, which then hatch
and eat the maggots from the inside out. CREDIT: Photo courtesy
of Todd Schlenke It's not likely anyone would nominate a fruit
fly for a "Best Mother of the Year" award — after laying her
eggs, the insect hits the road, never to be heard from again.
But it now turns out that fruit fly mothers aren't completely
uncaring and actually try to give their offspring a fighting
chance at life. If she spots a deadly parasitic wasp around, the
female fruit fly will "medicate" her offspring by laying her
eggs in an environment with high levels of alcohol, which is
very toxic to the wasps but not to the flies, new research
shows. Throughout the world, parasitic wasps are a bane to fruit
flies. Female wasps lay their eggs inside fly larvae, which then
hatch and eat the maggots from the inside out. Fly larvae have a
natural immune respons