Authors
Anne-Cecile Dagaeff, Arnaud Pocheville, Sabine Nöbel, Adeline Loyau, Guillaume Isabel, Etienne Danchin
Publication date
2016/11/1
Journal
Animal Behaviour
Volume
121
Pages
163-174
Publisher
Academic Press
Description
Highlights
- A new and fast protocol to study mate copying in Drosophila is proposed.
- Drosophila females can copy a mate choice after witnessing a single copulation.
- Mate copying correlates positively with air pressure and its increase.
- Controlling climatic parameters may be key to studying insect cognition.
Mate choice can strongly affect fitness in sexually reproducing organisms. A form of mate choice is mate copying, in which individuals use information about potential mates by copying the mate choice of other individuals. While many studies have documented mate copying, little is known about the effect of environmental conditions on this behaviour. Here, we report the first evidence that Drosophila melanogaster females can acquire a sexual preference for one male characteristic after witnessing a single mate choice event (ie speed learning). We also found that mate copying was correlated with air pressure and …
Scholar articles
AC Dagaeff, A Pocheville, S Nöbel, A Loyau, G Isabel… - Animal Behaviour, 2016