''Drosophila mercatorum'' is a species of fruit fly in the genus ''

Drosophila ''Drosophila'' () is a genus of flies, belonging to the family Drosophilidae, whose members are often called "small fruit flies" or (less frequently) pomace flies, vinegar flies, or wine flies, a reference to the characteristic of many species ...

'', ''repleta'' subgroup, described by Patterson and Wheeler in 1942.''Systema Dipterorum''. Pape T. & Thompson F.C. (eds), 2011 Thought to be native to South America, its subspecies ''D. m. mercatorum'' now has a cosmopolitan distribution. The other subspecies, ''D. m. pararepleta'', is confined to the east of the Andes mountains. It is used in scientific studies of

parthenogenesis Parthenogenesis (; from the Greek grc, παρθένος, translit=parthénos, lit=virgin, label=none + grc, γένεσις, translit=génesis, lit=creation, label=none) is a natural form of asexual reproduction in which growth and development ...

since it was discovered to have low levels of naturally occurring

thelytoky Thelytoky (from the Greek ''thēlys'' "female" and ''tokos'' "birth") is a type of parthenogenesis in which females are produced from unfertilized eggs, as for example in aphids. Thelytokous parthenogenesis is rare among animals and reported in a ...

Gallery

File:Dmerc-male.tif, ''Drosophila mercatorum'' male

References

mercatorum {{Drosophilidae-stub