Female Drosophila melanogaster respond to song-amplitude modulations.

Birgit Brüggemeier,Mason A Porter,Jim O Vigoreaux,Stephen F Goodwin

doi:10.1242/bio.032003

Abstract

ABSTRACTMales in numerous animal species use mating songs to attract females and intimidate competitors. We demonstrate that modulations in song amplitude are behaviourally relevant in the fruit fly Drosophila. We show that Drosophila melanogaster females prefer amplitude modulations that are typical of melanogaster song over other modulations, which suggests that amplitude modulations are processed auditorily by D. melanogaster. Our work demonstrates that receivers can decode messages in amplitude modulations, complementing the recent finding that male flies actively control song amplitude. To describe amplitude modulations, we propose the concept of song amplitude structure (SAS) and discuss similarities and differences to amplitude modulation with distance (AMD).This article has an associated First Person interview with the first author of the paper.

Highlights

While courting, males can signal advantageous characteristics – such as fitness, agility, and strength – which may help females make mating decisions (Clutton-Brock and Albon, 1979; Elemans et al, 2008; Velez, 2013; Roemer, 2013)
Our work demonstrates that Drosophila melanogaster mate preferentially in response to song amplitude structure that is typical for their song over those with other amplitude modulations, suggesting that song amplitude structure is behaviourally relevant in D. melanogaster
We examined whether female flies make mating decisions based on gain differences, analogous to females making mating decisions based on inter-pulse interval (IPI) differences (Bennet-Clark and Ewing, 1969; Ritchie et al, 1999; Vaughan et al, 2014)

Summary

Introduction

Males can signal advantageous characteristics – such as fitness, agility, and strength – which may help females make mating decisions (Clutton-Brock and Albon, 1979; Elemans et al, 2008; Velez, 2013; Roemer, 2013). Female deer (Clutton-Brock and Albon, 1979), frogs (Velez, 2013), and crickets (Roemer, 2013) prefer males with large-amplitude calls. This suggests that the amplitude of courtship calls affects female receptivity. Vocal muscles control song production in starlings, and muscle activity modulates their song amplitude (Elemans et al, 2008); and these birds may be able to assess the muscle characteristics of males from their songs (Ritschard et al, 2010). Several animals modulate their courtship song amplitude with distance (‘amplitude modulation with distance’; AMD), and females may assess the distance to potential partners from these modulations (Velez, 2013; Brumm and Slater, 2006; Coen et al, 2016)

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Conclusion