Supplying food vials with paper.

Drapeau, Mark D. Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, 321 Steinhaus Hall, University of California, Irvine, CA 92697-2525.  Phone: 949-824-5994, Fax: 949-824-2181, Email: drapeau@darwin.bio.uci.edu

The presence of paper or paper-like material (i.e., tissue) in vials and bottles filled with fly media is beneficial for a number of reasons. These include absorbing extraneous water from the top of the fly medium, the creation of "resting areas" for flies that are not on the chewed-up medium, and the addition of surface area for pupation. H.J. Muller published a paper in Drosophila Information Service that proposed a "high-throughput" method for supplying vials with paper (Muller, 1935). Briefly, Muller advocated purchasing pre-prepared white paper confetti and sprinkling it en masse over a set of open-topped vials. In this high-throughput new millennium, Muller's method may prove too slow for some researchers. Indeed, the mere act of going to the store to purchase confetti could slow progress down dramatically. Here, I propose an extension of Muller's original method. Given that personal shredding machines are inexpensive and abundant at universities, during normal administrative work periods a scientist could increase productivity by utilizing the products of shredding in the laboratory. Such products could be cross-shredded and then sprinkled over open vials.

References:  Muller, H.J., 1935, Dros. Inf. Serv. 3: 52.