Figure 1. Egg cannibalism in Drosophila melanogaster larvae.

(a) Drosophila eggs stained with red dye offered to starved Canton-S larvae. (b) Larval aggregation, egg consumption and dye accumulation in larval gut after 30 minutes. (c,d) Larvae tested for cannibalistic behavior with presentation of unstained conspecific eggs. Drosophila female (e) and male (f) adults developed by consuming conspecifics eggs and standard cornmeal-medium showed no morphological differences. Anatomical structures (i.e. head, eyes, wings, legs, thorax and abdomen), of flies developed normally after consuming eggs. Female (g) and male (h) wings of Drosophila reared exclusively on eggs or cornmeal, show no difference in the venation patterns (i) Larval development into pupae after feeding exclusively on conspecific eggs. Numbers are out of 100 larvae (mean ± s.e.m.) which successfully pupated by consuming eggs versus cornmeal. No significant difference was observed in the number of pupae emerging from larvae in either case (P = 0.4839), using Fisher’s exact test. (j) Cumulative number of pupae (mean ± s.e.m.) emerging from larvae fed on eggs versus cornmeal. No significant difference was observed in developmental time (P = 0.9805), using Mann-Whitney test. (k) Pupal development into adults after feeding exclusively on conspecifics eggs versus cornmeal. Number of adults (out of 100) which successfully eclosed (mean ± s.e.m), versus those which eclosed after feeding on standard cornmeal medium. No significant difference was observed in the number of adults in either case (P = 0.8736), using Fisher’s exact test. (l) Cumulative number of adults (mean ± s.e.m.) eclosed after larval feeding on eggs versus cornmeal medium. No significant difference was observed in developmental time (P = 0.733), using Mann-Whitney test.