The extent of visual control in the courtship tracking of D. melanogaster

Abstract

Abstract. The courtship tracking behaviour of male D.melanogaster was filmed in a range of visual mutants and in wild type flies under white and infra-red light.

TheDrosophila Pox neurogene: control of male courtship behavior and fertility as revealed by a complete dissection of all enhancers

“…4), and w; Poxn ∆M22-B5 double mutants also fail to initiate courtship at daylight. This result further supports the notion that visual and chemosensory taste and olfactory inputs play the major role in the initiation of male courtship behavior, while mechanosensory and auditory inputs play a subordinate role (Cook, 1980;Tompkins et al, 1980;Gailey et al, 1986;Markov, 1987;Heimbeck et al, 2001). Moreover, it demonstrates that the visual input alone is sufficient to trigger male courtship, though at a much reduced efficiency when compared with the use of all sensory modalities affecting courtship initiation.…”

“…Males not only follow chemical cues, they also react to visual stimulation by a moving object of the appropriate size. Although the visual modality seems to be a facultative input to induce courting behavior in Drosophila melanogaster (Spieth and Hsu, 1950;Cook, 1980), males with reduced or no eye pigment are at a distinct disadvantage in competition experiments (Conolly et al, 1969;Reed and Reed, 1950).…”

Dissection of signalling modalities and courtship timing reveals a novel signal in Drosophila saltans courtship

“…Although, females of some Drosophila species 389 produce auditory signals with wing vibrations (Cook, 1980) exceptions (e.g. Donegan & Ewing, 1980).…”

The relative roles of vision and chemosensation in mate recognition of Drosophila.

“…Whereas males in both situations exhibit many of the same courtship maneuvers, males in the dark never orient towards and fixate a female, nor do they extensively chase (Cook, 1980). Rather, males use a very different strategy in the dark to locate females and initialize courtship: they extend both wings and walk in a zig-zag pattern of motion until they collide with another fly (Cook, 1980;Crossley and Zuill, 1970;Krstic et al, 2009). Should the male thus encounter a fly in the dark, he would already be close enough to sample its pheromones and choose whether to court it.…”