''Drosophila'' is a paraphyletic subgenus of the

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nom ...

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 speci ...

'', a classification of fruit flies. This subgenus was first described by

Alfred Sturtevant Alfred Henry Sturtevant (November 21, 1891 – April 5, 1970) was an American geneticist. Sturtevant constructed the first genetic map of a chromosome in 1911. Throughout his career he worked on the organism ''Drosophila melanogaster'' with ...

in 1939.Sturtevant, A. H. (1939)
On the subdivision of the genus ''Drosophila''
''

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America ''Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America'' (often abbreviated ''PNAS'' or ''PNAS USA'') is a peer-reviewed multidisciplinary scientific journal. It is the official journal of the National Academy of Sc ...

''. 25, 137–141. Members of the subgenus Drosophila can be distinguished from other Drosophilid species by breaks in the pigmentation along the dorsal section of their abdomen.

Phylogeny

Most species are within three major groups, the ''virilis-repleta'' radiation, the ''immigrans-tripunctata'' radiation and the

Hawaiian Drosophila The Hawaiian Drosophilidae are a lineage of flies within the genus ''Drosophila.'' This monophyletic clade includes all of the endemic Hawaiian ''Drosophila'' and all members of the genus '' Scaptomyza'', which contains both Hawaiian and non-Haw ...

. Additionally, several smaller species groups are recognized consisting of smaller numbers of species, like the ''tumiditarsus'' species group and the ''polychaeta'' species group.

Gallery

File:Drosophila immigrans side on (14412343468).jpg, '' D. immigrans'' ( ''immigrans'' species group) File:Dinnubila4.tif, '' D. innubila'' ( ''quinaria'' species group) File:Dfun-male.tif, '' D. funebris'' ( ''funebris'' species group) File:Dneotestacea3.tif, '' D. neotestacea'' ( ''testacea'' species group) File:Dvir 1.tif, '' D. virilis'' ( ''virilis'' species group) File:Dhyd 5.tif, ''D. mercatorum'' ( ''repleta'' species group) File:Drosophila silvestris Kilohana 5161a.jpg, '' D. silvestris'' ( Hawaiian picture-wing ''Drosophila'') File:Zaprionus indianus cropped.jpg, ''

Zaprionus indianus ''Zaprionus indianus'', the African fig fly, is a species of vinegar fly in the family Drosophilidae The Drosophilidae are a diverse, cosmopolitan family of flies, which includes species called fruit flies, although they are more accurately ...

'' ('' Zaprionus'' genus)

References

D Insect subgenera {{Drosophilidae-stub