So I was thinking, put a number of fly larvae in a closed, dark container. Feed them and wait for flies to emerge. Keep the flies in the container and feed them to produce more larvae.
How many generations would it take for the flies to adapt to the new environment, for examples smaller eyes, decreased pigment etc.?
>>2144608
kek, you can't be serious, right?
>>2144608
>>2144608
Whadup Lamarck
>>2144608
Maybe about 40,000 generations
There would be no pressure to select those traits, so likely never
>>2144608
>How many generations
billions
>>2144681
that's not how it works.
there's no pressure against those traits, so they show up and persist.
>>2144686
There's no pressure either way, so no changes are likely.
>>2144691
over a long enough period of time changes are inevitable.
mutations and changing expressions go on whether there's pressure or not.
do you believe environmental pressures produce the changes? That's just funny.
>anons implying the metabolic cost associated with constructing and maintaining the complex structures of the eyes isn't itself a selective pressure
Lol
i have no idea how much generations but anoles have evolved to have different feet in 15 years so i guess it would take about 10 years.
>>2144694
>>2144691
Not to mention the sheer amount of inbreeding would result in a lot of genetically inherited mutations rising up to be more dominant. Most would likely be diseases or deformities that would cause the individual specimens to die off. But you never know, some mutations might be advantageous for such a confining environment.
For instance, larger size. The individual fly is too big to use its wings, but because they are in an artificial environment with no predators this doesn't matter. So the increased size is actually a benefit since it can use it's bulk to fight off rivals, get all the best food, and catch any members of the opposite sex who is on the ground for some good old fashioned rape.
After a while, the only flys who can compete for food/mates are the descendants of the first larger fly. And then you have a whole new species of super deformed inbred mutant flightless flys.
You can sell them online as fish food/bait or as food for smaller reptiles/tarantulas and shit. Not to mention if you manage to breed some cool color morphs you can probably sell them as pets.
>>2144849
If I had to guess I'd vote for neoteny.
wings, legs, eyes, all would seem useless in that situation. Just stay maggots, it saves energy.
>>2144777
This, everyone is forgetting that the shorter the lifespan, the faster a species can reproduce. So depending on the exact species and the exact conditions you maintain them in. (rich food that helps them mature faster, heat/cold cycles to trigger reproduction sooner, etc. etc. etc.) you can have over 500 generations within a relatively short time. And with each generation YOU are deciding which traits are worthy of being passed down or not.
With the right insects you can essentially accomplish the entire domestication process as thoroughly in a single human lifetime that our ancestors accomplished with dogs over thousands upon thousands of years.
I have a 4 year old neglected browning beetle colony; I assume they are extremely tolerant of drought but no outside change or any interesting mutation observed.
The most interesting thing is 1/3 larger and 2/3 smaller beetles than average.
>>2144608
You can do with 26 generations, but you will need to put heavy selection pressure (e.g., purposely removing those who do not meet your criteria)
http://phys.org/news/2015-09-fruit-flies-century-old-biological.html
>>2144849
I hear, if you have 50+ of an individual species to start, it can prevent the interbreeding issue.
>>2144932
It varies from species to species. For homo sapiens, you need 500 individuals who are at the least very distantly related to each other. At the most, no individual among the 500 is related at all.
>>2144608
throw in some radioactive shit to speed up the occurence of mutations. either you get your adapted flies / an eldritch horror / all ded
