Recipes from the literature

The five recipes listed below are directly from Brazner, J. C., and W. J. Etges. 1993. Pre-mating isolation is determined by larval rearing substrates in cactophilic Drosophila mojavensis. II. Effects of larval substrates on time to copulation, mate choice, and mating propensity. Evolutionary Ecology 7:605-624. First citation of these recipes which were found in a published article.

  1. Banana (Heed‘s) media

    This media contained 1000 ml deionized water, 7.7 g agar, 46.15 g nutritional yeast, one banana, 48 ml Karo syrup, 48 ml malt extract and 8.5 ml proprionic acid. The agar solution was heated to a rapid boil and the yeast added. The banana, Karo and malt extract were combined in a blender and then added to the agar-yeast mixture. This was then cooked for 10 min at a low boil, cooled, proprionic acid added and then poured.

  2. Wasserman media

    This recipe consisted of a cooked and refrigerated yeast mixture of 41.2 g live brewer‘s yeast and 78.4 ml deionized water, a mixture of 10.7 g agar, 392 ml deionized water and three-quarters of a tablespoon of Karo. The yeast mixture mentioned above was added to one-tenth of a mason jar of Opuntia cactus fruit, a half teaspoon of malt extract two bananas, 294 ml deionized water and was blended for 4 min. An additional 235 ml deionized water was added and then this mixture was heated to boiling. After cooling for 20 min, 39.2 ml of 15% proprionic acid was added.

  3. Zouros medium

    This recipe consisted of three-quarters of a medium-size banana, one spoonful of molasses, three-quarters of a spoonful of malt extract, 100g agar, 20 ml ethanol (added during the last few minutes of cooling to prevent evaporation), 30 g live baker‘s yeast, 20 ml of 10% Tegosept in 70% ethanol and enough deionized water to bring the solution to 1000 ml.

  4. Syracuse media

    This mixture contains 1 banana, 60 g brewer‘s yeast, 10 g malt extract, 10 ml light corn syrup and 15g Drosophila agar per liter of distilled water.

All the recipes were made according to the instructions provided. After cooling, approximately 50 ml of media was poured into sterilized half-pint bottles yielding approximately 20 bottles per recipe. The bottles were then wrapped securely with sterilized cloth and left to stand overnight. They were then plugged and refrigerated until needed.