The Virgin of the Flies, another painting inspired by Drosophila Melanogaster and my childhood in Mexico, where the Virgin of Guadalupe is a virtual obsession. Forgive my indiscretion with your Madonna, she just had to be in this painting. This painting was inspired by images of the fruitfly embryogenesis, which has some unique features. One interesting thing is that the embryo has a stage in which the nuclei divide, but the cells do not differentiate until there have been 8 or more divisions. Thus the embryo has a distinctive appearance. The adult flies in this painting are shown going through several of the stages of Drosophila courtship, which include a period when the adult male sings to his prospective partner while holding one of his wings out to the side.