Figure 2. Loss of cuticular pigmentation does not alter the survival and metamorphosis, but female fertility and vertical climbing behaviors are affected.

(A) Demelanized adult females live the same median life span as the controls, when adults were maintained in food without the AgNPs. A second control was set up with Na-citrate, which demonstrates, that citrate coating does not influence the survival. We therefore considered 50 mg/L as a nonlethal concentration for Drosophila. A significant drop in median life span was noted with AgNO₃ feeding. (B) Number of progenies obtained from females raised in AgNP doped food was significantly lower than the controls especially during the peak egg-laying period, which is between 10–30 days (boxed). (C) Metamorphosis proceeds normally in demelanized flies. Percent pupae eclosed as adults was determined from #adult/#pupal ratios. Eclosion ratios are not significantly different between Cit-AgNP fed and unfed controls. * represents p<0.05. (D) AgNP fed flies are slow to climb the same vertical distance with respect to the unfed flies, and this effect was evident starting from a very young age which is sustained throughout life. Climbing performance was more seriously impaired in flies fed with AgNO₃.