A fruit fly lives up to 15 years on a single fruit fly larva.
But it can live up to 100 years on an average of 100 fruit flies per colony.
The fruit flies that live longer tend to be the ones that are most prone to disease and injury.
The flies in the middle live a much longer time, but also tend to develop new traits and eventually die off.
The researchers say that their findings may have implications for the evolution of the world’s largest population of fruit flies.