The Scuttle Fly Megaselia abdita (Phoridae): A Link between Drosophila and Mosquito Development

Abstract

INTRODUCTIONThe insect order Diptera (true flies) has great potential in evolutionary developmental biology, featuring the “fruit fly,” Drosophila melanogaster, one of the best-studied genetic model systems in developmental biology, and many human disease vectors (e.g., mosquitoes, blackflies, sandflies, tsetse flies). However, the embryos of only a few dipteran species are currently amenable to efficient functional analyses of developmental genes. As described here, the phorid fly Megaselia abdita has been used as model in evolutionary developmental biology and has been an important species in forensic studies.