Male Courtship Behavior in <em>Drosophila melanogaster</em>
Male courtship behavior in Drosophila melanogaster has been used as a model to show how genes influence complex behaviors. This study compares two possible protocols, competitive and non-competitive, for quantifying persistent male mating behavior differences in two populations of D. melanogaster; Ives and Raleigh, when mated with ebony females. When testing the non-competitive protocol, we set up a 1:1 male to female ratio that included an ebony female, and a wild type male (Ives or Raleigh). When testing the competitive protocol, we set up a 2:1male to female ratio that included an ebony female, a wild type male (Ives or Raleigh) and an ebony male. We only quantified the behavior of the wild type male. Our results indicated that the differences between persistent courtship behaviors in the two types of males are detectable using both the noncompetitive and competitive protocols. However, the non-competitive protocol showed a larger qualitative difference between the two populations.
School:
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Department:
Biology
Research Advisor:
Elizabeth Ruedi & Kimberly Hughes
Department of Research Advisor:
Animal Biology
Year of Publication:
2003