Comparison of Quantitative Traits in Latitudinal Populations of Drosophila Kikkawai: Wild Vs Lab Populations

The quantitative characters in Drosophila such as body size or fecundity, are very sensitive to environmental changes e.g. temperature or larval nutrition under laboratory conditions. In nature, the same situation is found where changes in annual temperature or humidity affect the type of flora as well as the size of Drosophila, fauna. In the present studies, we found that latitudinal clines exist in natural populations of Drosophila kikkawai for the quantitative traits; thorax length and wing length and wing/thorax ratio i.e the values of wing length, and thorax length and wing to thorax ratio are smaller for southern populations while higher for northern populations in both wild caught and laboratory reared populations.