Social effects on fruit fly courtship song

Courtship behaviour in Drosophila has often been described as a classic innate behavioural repertoire, but more recently extensive plasticity has been described. In particular, prior exposure to acoustic signals of con- or heterspecific males can change courtship traits in both sexes that are liable to be important in reproductive isolation. However, it is unknown whether male courtship song itself is socially plastic. We examined courtship song plasticity of two species in the Drosophila melanogaster subgroup. Sexual isolation between the species is influenced by two male song traits, the inter-pulse interval (IPI) and sine song frequency (SSF). Neither of these showed plasticity when males had prior experience of con- and heterospecific social partners. However, males of both species produced longer bursts of song during courtship when they were exposed to social partners (either con- or heterospecific) than when they were reared in isolation. D. melanogaster carrying mutations affect...

果蝇（Drosophila）的求偶行为常被视作经典的先天行为谱，但近年来已有研究揭示其具备广泛的行为可塑性。具体而言，预先暴露于同种或异种雄性的声学信号，可改变两性中在生殖隔离里发挥关键作用的求偶特征。但目前仍不清楚雄性求偶歌本身是否具有社会可塑性。本研究针对黑腹果蝇亚种组（Drosophila melanogaster subgroup）中的两个物种，开展了求偶歌可塑性相关实验。两物种间的生殖隔离受两种雄性歌声特征调控：脉冲间期（IPI）与正弦歌频率（SSF）。当雄性预先接触同种或异种社交伴侣时，这两种特征均未表现出可塑性。但相较孤立饲养的雄性，接触过社交伴侣（无论同种或异种）的两个物种的雄性，在求偶过程中均会产生时长更长的歌声爆发。携带突变的黑腹果蝇（D. melanogaster）相关影响……