Wingless House Flies?

[irThumper]

I'd heard about these a while ago (not sure if they were wingless or just flightless actually) but they were definitely house flies as opposed to fruit flies, and apparently frogs will go for these when they are refusing other types of feeders. Anyone know a good supplier?

[Tzunu un]

I don't know of any supplier in the US recently. There may be someone perhaps that may raise them.

A few years ago (2006 to be exaxt) Arizona Dendrobate Ranch started selling them in the US.
Their website still shows them lsited, but the page appears to be quite old (not updated?) and says that they are backorded. The product reviews on the page are from 2006.
Heres the link: flightless house flies,curly winged house flies

You might want to call /email them to find out. If you do you might want to post the findings here to inform all.


As an reasonable alternative, you can purchase house fly pupae from Mantis Pets.
FEEDERS - UPDATED - Mantis Pets - Home of the Praying Mantis

You keep the pupae in the fridge to delay development (they say best if limited to two weeks). When ready take the desired number of pupae out and put into the vivarium and they will hatch out (make sure they can't esacape).
I used to do this for day geckos.

Alternatively if you are a fly sadist and don't want fliers, you can hatch them out in another container, then put the container in the fridge temporarily to slow them down / make them immoble, and manually pull off the wings. This way you will have crawlers to add...but with effort.


The flightless curly winged flies are being sold in Great Britain/Europe. The major effort in raising them is to get media that doesn't smell, and also their culture requires different condition for different stages of the fly lifecycle.
A company called Jangala sells them and a odorless proprietary media: Untitled Document
They also have a tutorial on raising them: Curly wing culture

Good luck! and please update if you find a source.

James

[deranged chipmunk]

I had a discussion about this topic with Frank Indiviglio a few years back. Try doing a search for vestigial house flies.


Education is the most powerful weapon we can use to change the world ~ Nelson Mandela

[Tzunu un]

There are several gene mutations in flies that can lead to lack of the ability to fly (some of these have other effects: lethality in homozygous state, causing selective sterility of males or females, lowered growth / production rates, etc.)

Vestigial is one type of "flightless".

There are vestigial winged fruit fly strains, but I am unaware of similarly mutated house flies.

Both the British and US flightless houseflies found/reported have a curly winged mutation (to the best of my knowledge).

James

[irThumper]

Thanks fellas!

[jarteta97]

I had a discussion about this topic with Frank Indiviglio a few years back. Try doing a search for vestigial house flies.


Education is the most powerful weapon we can use to change the world ~ Nelson Mandela

Frank is the zookeeper from New York, right? I always enjoy his posts, very informative.

[deranged chipmunk]

Herpetologist. But yes. He was the one who suggested I search for vestigial flies. Never did, but it was an interesting conversation to say the least. Lol


Education is the most powerful weapon we can use to change the world ~ Nelson Mandela

[flybyferns]

Great thread !

Check it out:
Exhibit: Mutant Fruit Flies - Drosophila Genetics | Exploratorium

I have always thought of vestigial meaning, in biological terms, something forming smaller and rendered useless ?
For example a smaller organ ( ie a wing) that results in that part no longer functioning..... ie the ' vestigial ' wings of flightless fruit flies

James describes it MUCH better ! I'm no biologist

[Tzunu un]

Thanks Lynn.

I think that your link is great as it is straightforward and layperson friendly.

"Curly" and "vestigial" are the two most commonly encountered "flightless" mutations in Drosophila stocks....for those interested there are others as well.

[irThumper]

This article by Frank Indiviglio only mentions flightless houseflies in passing, but it's a good article on flies as feeders in general Houseflies and Maggots as Food for Reptiles, Amphibians and Invertebrates

[flybyferns]

Thanks Lynn.

I think that your link is great as it is straightforward and layperson friendly.

"Curly" and "vestigial" are the two most commonly encountered "flightless" mutations in Drosophila stocks....for those interested there are others as well.

I'm interested. I'm sure others will be as well.
I don't want to hijack - this- Lisa's 'house fly' thread though.
I'll start a new thread for the FF?

[manderkeeper]

I have not seen any available curly winged house flies in the US, might have to import them if you really want them and hope you can sell enough cultures to get your money back. Carolina has a house fly rearing kit but for frogs I think I'd be tempted to try my own hand at it if I were going to go winged anyway. I've purchased maggots from Grubco before but I was using the maggots directly as food for salamanders but at this point I am content to just capture them during the summer months. If I had a really large collection, I'd give this a shot.

[km57]

I am in the process of trying my milk frogs on blue bottle flies, obtained in caster form from my local
fishing tackle shop, none of hatched yet so cannot comment any further


P