The survival of ebony, yellow, ebony-yellow double mutant and their wild type was studied on two types of media. All genotypes showed greater survival in the presence of 10% ethanol (E) than on the control agar medium (C), with wild type showing greatest and the double mutant ebony-yellow least response. This increase in survival on E was negatively dependent on that on C. The relationship between alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH) activity and survival appeared to be negative on E. On C it was either slightly positive for males or constant for females. The degree of survival increase standardized in relation to survival on C [(E-C)/C] was more dependent on the level of ADH activity for the males (r = -0.98; p greater than 0.05) than for the females (r = -0.38; NS). In the complex interaction between morphogenes, ADH activity and survival, morphogenes increased the ADH activity and decreased survival on E.