Invertebrates Domestication

sericulturalists preparing silkworms spinning of silk

two insects, silkworm , western honey bee, have been domesticated on 5,000 years, commercial use. silkworm raised silk threads wound around pupal cocoon; western honey bee, honey, and, lately, pollination of crops.

several other invertebrates have been domesticated, both terrestrial , aquatic, including such drosophila melanogaster fruit flies , freshwater cnidarian hydra research genetics , physiology. few have long history of domestication. used food or other products such shellac , cochineal. phyla involved cnidaria, platyhelminthes (for biological control), annelida, mollusca, arthropoda (marine crustaceans insects , spiders), , echinodermata. while many marine molluscs used food, few have been domesticated, including squid, cuttlefish , octopus, used in research on behaviour , neurology. terrestrial snails in genera helix , murex raised food. several parasitic or parasitoidal insects including fly eucelatoria, beetle chrysolina, , wasp aphytis raised biological control. conscious or unconscious artificial selection has many effects on species under domestication; variability can readily lost inbreeding, selection against undesired traits, or genetic drift, while in drosophila, variability in eclosion time (when adults emerge) has increased.