A species of fruit fly much used in genetics because of the large size of its chromosomes.

small fruit fly used by Thomas Hunt Morgan in studying basic mechanisms of inheritance

A fruit fly often used in genetic studies.

Harvard University, Biological Laboratories. Genetic nomenclature for Drosophila melanogaster. In: FlyBase: a database of the Drosophila genome [database on the Internet]. Bloomington (IN): Indiana University; c1993-1997- [revised 2001 Aug 9; cited 2001 Aug 28]. Available from: http://flybase.bio.indiana.edu/docs/nomenclature/lk/nomenclature.html Lindsley DL, Zimm GG. The genome of Drosophila melanogaster. San Diego (CA): Academic Press; 1992.

The fruit fly whose common use in genetic studies was introduced by Thomas Hunt Morgan in the early 1900's

Drosophila melanogaster (from the Greek for black-bellied dew-lover) is a two-winged insect that belongs to the Diptera, the order of the flies. The species is commonly known as the fruit fly, and is one of the most commonly used model organisms in biology, including studies in genetics, physiology and life-history evolution. Flies belonging to the Tephritidae are also called fruit flies, which can lead to confusion.