Celebrating Goof ups and Feeling for the Organism!

[Ayana_Sudheer]

On 27/04/25 at 10.30am I arranged a bait to trap fruitflies. In the food preference tests previously done, I could observe that tomato is a good attractant! So I took a plastic bottle and kept two slices of tomato inside it and kept the set up on my kitchen table.

27/04/25; 1.15pm
Location: Nallalam, Kozhikode
Photo: Ayana
By the time, I decided to prepare TRSV media for fruit fly culture. That is Tomato, Rava, Sugar, Vinegar medium which has been used by Cubists to culture fruitflies. I saw a discussion on the procedure in context2curriculum group and without asking or discussing it with anyone, tried to prepare it and ended up making something else!!

Then for transferring this medium into the bottle, I poured it through the walls by using a spoon, so a portion of the wall got sticky and wet!!

Gravid female seen on the tomato!

In a previous chatShaala @⁨~Akanksha Joshi⁩ was telling how she was transferring the fruit fly from a bottle to another. She used to keep it in the refrigerator for just ‘2 minutes’! I kept the bottle in which I trapped the fly inside (I trapped a gravid female since I wanted to raise a single line culture) the refrigerator, took it out after 2 minutes, but it was still very very active, so I went for another one more minute🥲 It was passive then, resting on the tomato slice! Then after that, I transferred it to the culture bottle using a soft brush. I placed it on the dry part of the wall. After two minutes, it was climbing up the wall, started walking here and there.

Then after that when I observed, I found it fallen in the media. Then seen stuck on wall! My ignorance has tortured and killed that fly. “Feeling for the organism” !!

Discussion followed in Context2curriculum group
[27/04, 10:32 pm] Himanshu: Please put all the goofups that were performed by you, so that those wouldn’t be followed by others while preparing the media and transferring the fruitfly into it
@⁨ayanasudheer⁩
[27/04, 10:32 pm] ayanasudheer: I am writing it, sir… In detail​:relieved:
[27/04, 10:36 pm] Himanshu: Did you followed up this while preparing the media or something else
@⁨ayanasudheer⁩
A reference would be always good to have before preparing the media
[27/04, 10:39 pm] +Himanshu: Can a fly survive this kind of wet environment after a trauma of ~4°c for four minutes?
[27/04, 10:55 pm] Theertha Cube: Congratulations @⁨ayanasudheer⁩ for the continuous follow up and for pointing out the goofups .Let’s learn from the goofups!

[Ayana_Sudheer]

Learning from my mistakes, I tried making TRSV media again on 28/04/25 at my CUBE homelab, Nallalam, Kozhikode
@magpie used to share pictures of her fruit fly culture and also has shared about the TRSV media. That inspired me to culture fruitflies at my homelab also!
[28/04, 9:06 am] ayanasudheer: @⁨~Himanshu Joshi⁩ @⁨Batul Pipewala⁩ @⁨Theertha Cube⁩
How to transfer fruit flies from one bottle to another.? Pls suggest.
[28/04, 11:03 am] Theertha Cube: Can we place another bottle over it and tap the below bottle.
[28/04, 11:04 am] Theertha Cube: How to trap fruitflies, written by Aswathy Trapping Fruit Flies

Fruit flies study in home lab

[IMG_20200917_210743] Trapping Fruit Flies We can trapp fruit flies Using Fruit / Rotten Baits . Bait are 2 type Open bait or Closed bait. Both baits are shows different .in the case of open bait we kept a fruit any kind of paper for attracting flies and in the case of closed bait , fruits are kept in the bottle and invited flies after flies were in to the bottle just closed the mouth of bottle that way we trap flies and culture them safely . In open Bait ( Tomato / Banana ) we can trap flie…

Fruit flies study in home lab

[IMG_20200912_133646] TRSV - STANDARDIZED Culturing Fruit Flies At Home Lab INGREDIENTS 1 egg size Tomato 2 table spoon Rava 1 table spoon Sugar ~150 mL Water (Sanitised bottle) ~15 mL Vinegar (medicine cap) PREPARATION Taken a pan turn on flame added ~150ml water ,2 table spoon rava ,1 spoon sugar ,1egg sized tomato smashed . Continually mixed mixture at 10 minutes low flame . Off flame and 5 minutes leave it for cooling .final added ~15ml Vinegar in to whole medium and mixed it well…

Following the standardized protocol posted by the cubist @saswathy679, I made TRSV media again
Ingredients needed
1 egg sized tomato
2 tbspoons of Rava
1 tbspoon of Sugar
150ml water
5ml vinegar

Procedure:
Add 150ml of water in a pan. Keep it it very low flame. Add 1 tbs of Rava and sugar to the pan. Stir it continuously for 2 minutes. Then add the smashed tomato to the pan. Cook for 10 minutes in low flame. Stir continuously. Then, allow it to cool for 5 minutes. Now TRSV will be thick. By adding 5ml of Vinegar, it will become slight liquidy.

TRSV is transferred soon into two bottles (250ml, 600ml bottles cleaned and dried in sun) using a funnel without touching the walls.

[Ayana_Sudheer]

On 29/04/25, I kept a slice of rotten lemon on a plate in my kitchen. I was looking for a gravid female fruitfly. At 1.25 pm, I could spot one on the lemon. I took a photograph, zoomed in to make sure the fly was gravid. Then I slowly moved a glass towards it and kept inverted trapping the fly. Then I transferred the fly into my culture bottle.

Gravid female fruit fly on lemon slice
29/04/25; 1.25pm
Location: Nallalam, Kozhikode
Photo: Ayana

Gravid female fruit fly inside the culture bottle
29/04/25;4.40pm
Location: Nallalam, Kozhikode
Photo: Ayana

[Ayana_Sudheer]

Gravid female fruit fly inside the culture bottle. No eggs or larvae in the bottle
2/05/25; 7.35am
Nallalam, Kozhikode
Video:Ayana

Video taken on 4/05/25 at 8.30pm
Fruitfly still active inside the bottle.

The chosen fruit fly species!
I trapped this gravid female fruit fly and transferred into the TRSV culture bottle on 29 th of April. It’s been 6 days. By this time I expected to see pupal stages.
Video taken on 5/5/25 at 6.15pm.
Nallalam, Kozhikode
Pls comment.
@⁨Batul Pipewala⁩ @⁨HBCSE Arunan Sir⁩ @⁨Theertha Cube⁩ @⁨~Himanshu Joshi⁩ @⁨~Akanksha Joshi⁩ @⁨Cube Seethalakshmi⁩ @⁨Sailekshmi Cube⁩