This is what the mother’s ovipositor looks like (Dr. @jnpelaez.bsky.social and current Hanna Gray Fellow www.hhmi.org/scientists/j... made these beautiful photos and discoveries):
Noah Whiteman
After injection, they hatch and we take the damp tip of a wee paintbrush 🖌️ and make a tiny cut in the petiole with the beveled edge of a needle, and put the larva head-first into the wound. Normally they would mine from the wound their mother laid. See: www.nytimes.com/2022/11/14/s...
This drosophilid leafminer was injected as an embryo with CRISPR reagents by Dr. Ben Goldman-Huertas! Tedious because they won’t lay eggs on and can’t be reared on media (bug and feature—obligate endoparasitism is why we study them)…eggs coaxed out of wounds, injected, and transferred to new leaf.
