Stimuli provided by Courtship of Male Drosophila melanogaster

Abstract

DURING courtship Drosophila melanogaster males perform a movement termed vibration¹, in which one wing is held out horizontally at right angles to the body and vibrated in the vertical plane. This movement is very important in stimulating sexual receptivity in the female² and the stimuli produced by vibration are perceived through the females’ antennae³. The exact nature of the stimulation is unknown, although there is evidence that it is not olfactory⁴ as was previously thought, nor is it visual, for success of mating is not significantly reduced in the dark⁵. Sound is produced during vibration, and so it is possible that the stimulus is auditory⁶. The sounds consist o pulses of between 180 and 350 cycles/sec with a pulse repetition rate of 29/sec at 25° C. Each sound pulse is possibly produced by one up and down movement of the wing as the sound record shows a single damped oscillation (Fig. 1).