The term "Drosophila", meaning "dew-loving", is a modern scientific Latin adaptation from Greek words δρόσος, drósos, "dew", and φιλία, philía, "lover".

Drosophila species are small flies, typically pale yellow to reddish brown to black, with red eyes.

[4] According to a study published in Nature in October 2024, by the scientists examining the brain of an adult female Drosophila, the shape and location of each of its 130,000 neurons and 50 million synapsis were identified.

The plumose (feathery) arista, bristling of the head and thorax, and wing venation are characters used to diagnose the family.

Environmental challenge by natural toxins helped to prepare Drosophilae to detox DDT,[7]: Abstract [7]: 1365 [7]: 1369  by shaping the glutathione S-transferase mechanism[7]: 1365 [7]: 1369  that metabolizes both.

[12] Most species breed in various kinds of decaying plant and fungal material, including fruit, bark, slime fluxes, flowers, and mushrooms.

Fruits exploited by Drosophila species include those with a high pectin concentration, which is an indicator of how much alcohol will be produced during fermentation.

These and other species (D. subobscura, and from a related genus Zaprionus indianus[15][16][17]) have been accidentally introduced around the world by human activities such as fruit transports.

Those such as D. melanogaster that breed in large, relatively rare resources have ovaries that mature 10–20 eggs at a time, so that they can be laid together on one site.

The eggs have one or more respiratory filaments near the anterior end; the tips of these extend above the surface and allow oxygen to reach the embryo.

Development time varies widely between species (between 7 and more than 60 days) and depends on the environmental factors such as temperature, breeding substrate, and crowding.

[27] Male and female Drosophila use a variety of sensory cues to initiate and assess courtship readiness of a potential mate.

[26][27][28] The cues include the following behaviours: positioning, pheromone secretion, following females, making tapping sounds with legs, singing, wing spreading, creating wing vibrations, genitalia licking, bending the stomach, attempt to copulate, and the copulatory act itself.

[26] Recent experiments explore the role of fruitless (fru) and doublesex (dsx), a group of sex-behaviour linked genes.

[34][35] Post copulatory strategies include sperm competition, mating frequency, and sex-ratio meiotic drive.

[42][40] Female Drosophila through cryptic choice, one of several post-copulatory mechanisms, which allows for the detection and expelling of sperm that reduces inbreeding possibilities.

In 1906, Thomas Hunt Morgan began his work on D. melanogaster and reported his first finding of a white eyed mutant in 1910 to the academic community.

His work on Drosophila earned him the 1933 Nobel Prize in Medicine for identifying chromosomes as the vector of inheritance for genes.

[citation needed] However, some species of Drosophila are difficult to culture in the laboratory, often because they breed on a single specific host in the wild.

[56][57] Melanin's ability to protect DNA against ionizing radiation has been most extensively demonstrated in Drosophila, including in the formative study by Hopwood et al. in 1985.

The fly gut microbiota or microbiome seems to have a central influence on Drosophila fitness and life history characteristics.

This represents the first bacterial factor that affects eukaryotic cells in a sex-specific fashion, and is the first mechanism identified for male-killing phenotypes.

However, the effect abiotic factors,[64] such as temperature, has on the microbiome on Drosophila species has recently been of great interest.

The microbiome has been shown to impact these fruit flies' social interactions, specifically aggressive behaviour that is seen during courtship and mating.

In Hawaii, the introduction of yellowjackets from mainland United States has led to the decline of many of the larger species.

[68] Fruit flies use several fast-acting neurotransmitters, similar to those found in humans, which allow neurons to communicate and coordinate behavior.

It is released by photoreceptor cells to transmit visual information from the eye to the brain, making it essential for vision.

[70][71] In addition to melanin's more commonly known roles in the endoskeleton and in neurochemistry, melanization is one step in the immune responses to some pathogens.

About 250 species are part of the genus Scaptomyza, which arose from the Hawaiian Drosophila and later recolonized continental areas.

[80] Bartolomé et al. 2009 find at least 1⁄3 of the TEs in D. melanogaster, D. simulans and D. yakuba have been acquired by horizontal transfer.