Certain Troubles Encountered during the Course of Experiments about the Olfactory Response of Drosophila

Abstract

Using blowfly as the experimental animal, DETHIER made the research about the relationship between olfactory response of blowfly and chemical constitution.
The authors intended to make the same line of investigation using Drosophila as an experimental animal. The reason for the choice of the Drosophila exists in the easiness to obtain a genetically pure strain which accordingly brings the advantages in the biochemical and the genetical analysis of the olfactory responses.
During the experiments, the authors had to encounter many troubled, such as finding suitable containers, developing ticks and mold in incubation bottle, selection of male from female, and an unsatisfactory reproducibility in the results.
The only thing which the authors could establish was anesthetic method of Drosophila. To take out the certain number of fly from its incubation bottle, it is recommended to use the technique of so-called “cold anesthesia” instead of commonly used ether anesthesia.