Why are biting flies attracted to blue objects?

ABSTRACT: Diurnal biting flies are strongly attracted to blue objects. This behaviour is widely exploited for fly control, but its functional significance is debated. It is hypothesized that blue objects resemble animal hosts; blue surfaces resemble shaded resting places; and blue attraction is a by-product of attraction to polarized light. We computed the fly photoreceptor signals elicited by a large sample of leaf and animal integument reflectance spectra, viewed under open/cloudy illumination and under woodland shade. We then trained artificial neural networks (ANNs) to distinguish animals from leaf backgrounds, and shaded from unshaded surfaces, in order to find the optimal means of doing so based upon the sensory information available to a fly. After training, we challenged ANNs to classify blu

SUBMITTER: Santer RD 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10291711 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature