Drosophila melanogaster is a fruit fly pest found around the world. This insect responds plastically to variation in temperature and has been known to be locally adapted to different locations across the globe, with varying maximum and minimum thermal limits. Artificial selection can be used to create adaptive responses in a laboratory setting, which can be used to mimic a range of thermal responses. Previous research has shown that within 30 generations of selection, naturally caught D. melanogaster from North Carolina, USA, can produce populations with both increased and decreased responses to cold stress as demonstrated by the chill-coma recovery trait (Gerken et al. 2016). This dataset expands on cross-tolerances to reproductive capacity and includes data from the four artificially selected D. melanogaster populations and two control populations. Egg production and total lifespan were measured in a laboratory setting at five different temperatures. Two data resources are included: full egg production and longevity for each fly assayed. This study was used to establish how selection for cold tolerance can affect reproductive capacity and longevity.

Resources in this dataset:

• Resource Title: Oviposition (egg laying) data for entire lifespan
  File Name: Full_egg_data.csv
  Resource Description: Egg laying (oviposition) data for entire lifespan for 6 populations of Drosophila melanogaster. Fly_ID is a unique identifier for each female fly assayed. SelectionLine is the specific replicate line and SelectionRegime is the overall increased (Resistant) or decreased (Susceptible) cold tolerance parameter (or Control, no selection). Treatment is in degrees Celsius and is the temperature at which the female was put to lay eggs. The remaining columns represent each day of egg counting. The first count was on day 6 after introduction to the temperature assigned, and counts were conducted every 6 days until the female died or until day 210.

• Resource Title: Longevity (in days) for Drosophila melanogaster populations
  File Name: Full_longevity_data.csv
  Resource Description: Longevity data (survival) for 6 populations of Drosophila melanogaster. Fly_ID is a unique identifier for each female fly assayed. SelectionLine is the specific replicate line which includes the overall selection regime of increased (Resistant) or decreased (Susceptible) cold tolerance parameter (or Control, no selection) and the specific replicate for each selection regime (1 or 2). Treatment is in degrees Celsius and is the temperature at which the female was put to lay eggs. Longevity_days is the total lifespan of the individual female fly. If the Longevity_days is set at -9, the fly outlived the maximum days of 210 and was not counted in overall survival parameters.