When larval competition in Drosophila melanogaster is prevented, survival up to imaginal emergence in two inbred strains and their reciprocal hybrids seems to depend on (i) a maternal influence (possibly due to cytoplasmic factors), (ii) the state of inbreeding or outbreeding of the progeny. The study of the death rate during development demonstrates that the maternal effect can be detected at every stage of the preimaginal life (embryo, larva, and pupa). On the other hand heterosis is superimposed on the maternal effect mainly during larval life, the viability for the hybrid larvae being higher than the average of the two parental strains.
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N. Cadieu (1983) studied this question.
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