flies
Drosophila behavior
Even though they are small, and live for only about two months, vinegar flies show a sophisticated behavioral repertoire. Some examples are shown on this page.
that concludes with the quote “Experience thus far with the fly as a model system for un-raveling the path from gene to behavior is encouraging. In any case, it is fun.”
True, on both counts.
Male flies tussle. Research by Dierick and Greenspan.
Check out the movie
they fight:
they have internal clocks:
Activity profiles showing sleep/wake cycles of normal (left) and “long-day” flies (right). * denotes shift from light/dark cycles into constant darkness.
Research by Rothenfluh, al., and Young.
they use the flight-simulator to learn:
A fly in the simulator, where it is taught that T = burning heat, thus it steers to avoid it, and heads towards the inverted one. Research by Brembs. Check out that movie
they love:
Cartoon of the successive steps in Drosophila courtship behavior. Any interruption, and the male has to start over at step a).
they act funny when on crack:
Locomotion traces of normal (left), and flies exposed to crack cocaine (right). An intermediate dose of crack makes the flies run in circles.
Research by the Heberlein and Hirsh labs.
Picture from Rothenfluh and Heberlein, 2002.
