Drawing a fly in eight seconds, or eight steps, or 6.5 minutes…

November 4, 2012 • 2:54 pm

by Matthew Cobb

Jerry and I have both spent our academic careers studying the tiny vinegar fly, Drosophila (although I did spend a few years getting human twins drunk and have also fooled around with ants and beetles). Here’s how to draw a Drosophilid, in eight seconds…

Can’t embed the video grr so you’ll have to click here to this Facebook page.

When you’ve tried that, what about following these eight easy steps, taken from here:

And Wayne Tully can show you how to draw a fly in six and a half minutes:

 

 

 

 

 

 

20 thoughts on “Drawing a fly in eight seconds, or eight steps, or 6.5 minutes…”

    1. Free drinks. College age volunteers. Party at the grad student’s house. What could go wrong? Sounds like a potential Ignoble prize to me.

      Note, any resemblance of the above description to the actual events is purely coincidental. Still might be Ignoble material, just the same.

    2. And the fooling around with ants and beetles…

      On the other hand, maybe I’ve already heard more than I want to about that.

  3. Hey Matthew,

    Do you have any tips on culturing drosophila? I buy them in for my Electric Blue Geckos but have a knack of running out quickly. Any culture media I’ve tried seems to kill tremor dry out.

    Sorry if that’s a cheeky ask!

    Tarron

    1. In Genetics class we had that problem until we periodically added a bit of water to the media on a regular basis.

    2. Cut up a ripe apple into quarters and put them in the flies’ container, which can be something like a pint glass jar. Use a thin cloth with a rubber band to cover the top. Moisture shouldn’t be a problem but you can always put a few drops of water on the cloth.

    3. Using “ask” as a noun makes most people dislike you; using “cheeky” to modify it only makes it worse. This was a public service announcement from the grammar/culture police.

      1. Speaking for “most people” makes a lot of people dislike you.
        This was a public service announcement from the anti-grammar/culture police.

      1. No, I think this refers to the small earth-quakes that occur in culture vials and have been the bane of experimenters for decades…

      2. Autocorrect methinks.

        Should have been ‘kill them or dry out’
        —
        And btw, I’m skeptical about anyone who doubts the existence of stars. 🙂

  8. Hearing them called “vinegar flies” reminded me that the latest threat to our gardens is Drosophila. I kid you not. I was listening to our local public radio show on the way to work, and the gardening expert was going on about how to kill off “vinegar flies” which had infested your garden.

    I wanted to shout at them that these flies could not sting, could not bite, didn’t carry disease, and did not cause the fruit to rot. But I was unable to call in at the time. It seems that there are not enough things actually dining on us or on our gardens — we now have to cope with the looming threat of Drosophila!

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