BIOMETRICAL ANALYSIS OF LARVAL DIGGING BEHAVIOR IN DROSOPHILA-MELANOGASTER

Digging behavior of D. melanogaster larvae increases as larval develop ment proceeds. Diallel crosses were made to analyze genetically diggin g behavior at 72 and 108 h of larval age. Additive and dominance varia tion was found, dominance being principally to dig. Dominance to dig i s higher at 108 than 72 h of development; additivity does not substant ially change between these two larval ages. At 72 h of larval age, dep ending on the cross, I found (i) dominance to dig, (ii) dominance to n ondig, (iii) overdominance to dig, and (iv) no dominance to dig. At 10 8 h of larval development I detected (i) dominance to dig and (ii) ove rdominance to dig. Thus, diversity of response in the F, was greater a t 72 than 108 h of larval development. These age-related changes in la rval digging behavior of D. melanogaster seem to reflect epigenetic ch anges in the patterns of gene expressions.