small fruit fly used by Thomas Hunt Morgan in studying basic mechanisms of inheritance
"Thomas Hunt Morgan used drosophila to map the chromosomes that determine traits like eye color and wing shape."
Any fruit fly of the genus Drosophila
"Researchers often use drosophila as a model organism to study genetics because they reproduce quickly and have simple genomes."
In plain English: Drosophila is the scientific name for fruit flies, which are tiny insects often used by scientists to study genetics and biology.
"Scientists often use drosophila to study genetics because they are easy to breed in laboratories."
The word drosophila comes from the Greek phrase droso phila, which literally means " dew-loving." This scientific name was coined to describe fruit flies that are attracted to moist environments where they lay their eggs.