Sous-Alimentation Quantitative chez la Drosophile I. Action sur le Développement Larvaire et sur la Taille des Adultes

SUMMARY

Quantitative nutritional deficiency in Drosophila I. Action upon the larval development and the size of adults

By dilution of an axenic Drosophila food, it was possible to prepare various media whose concentrations were ranging from 16% to 1% of nutrients. All the measured characters respond to the dilution: duration of development, larvo-pupal mortality, thoracic length, live or dried weight of young adults. But the type of response varies according to the character.

From these data, two problems are discussed: first, the definition of an optimum concentration which, for Drosophila, is probably lower than 16 %; second, the various physiological mechanism which may explain the effects of dilution (slowing down of whole metabolism, variation of osmotic pressure; nutritive imbalance of food).