fruit fly

noun

1. any of numerous small dipterous insects of the family Tephritidae, the larvae of which feed on the fruit of various plants.
2. vinegar fly.
3. drosophila.

fruit fly

noun

1. See gallfly
   any small dipterous fly of the family Trypetidae , which feed on and lay their eggs in plant tissues See also gallfly
2. See drosophila
   any dipterous fly of the genus Drosophila See drosophila

Word History and Origins

Origin of fruit fly¹

First recorded in 1745–55

Example Sentences

The current project, FlyWire, is an ambitious effort to map neuronal connections in the entire brain of a fruit fly.

From MIT Technology Review

Last year, Google and the Janelia Research Campus of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute made headlines when they similarly mapped a portion of a fruit fly brain.

From Singularity Hub 

Janelia’s Gerry Rubin told Stat he and his team have overseen a 1,000-fold increase in mapping speed since they began work on the fruit fly connectome in 2008.

From Singularity Hub 

If molecular mechanisms behind sleep could be uncovered — if a well-understood model organism like the fruit fly could be used to study them — then there was the potential for a revolution in sleep science as well.

From Quanta Magazine

They were part of two independent groups that had begun to look closely at the quiescence of fruit flies.

From Quanta Magazine

Everyone has a mosquito story they want to tell her—not like when she was studying drosophila, the fruit fly.

From The Daily Beast

The most extensive and conclusive experiments along this line are those by Morgan on the fruit fly Drosophila.

From Project Gutenberg

Fruits are especially likely to be infected by the small fruit fly commonly found around markets and stands.

From Project Gutenberg

Again, a mutant stock in the fruit fly (Drosophila) has as its most marked characteristic very short wings.

From Project Gutenberg

The earlier ripening fruit usually escapes damage from fruit fly, but the late fruit often suffers considerably.

From Project Gutenberg

Many kinds of pears do well, but, unfortunately, this fine fruit is very liable to be attacked by fruit fly.

From Project Gutenberg

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