Heading choices of flying Drosophila under changing angles of polarized light.

ABSTRACT: Many navigating insects include the celestial polarization pattern as an additional visual cue to orient their travels. Spontaneous orientation responses of both walking and flying fruit flies (Drosophila melanogaster) to linearly polarized light have previously been demonstrated. Using newly designed modular flight arenas consisting entirely of off-the-shelf parts and 3D-printed components we present individual flying flies with a slow and continuous rotational change in the incident angle of linear polarization. Under such open-loop conditions, single flies choose arbitrary headings with respect to the angle of polarized light and show a clear tendency to maintain those chosen headings for several minutes, thereby adjusting their course to the slow rotation of the incident stimulus. Impo

SUBMITTER: Mathejczyk TF 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6856357 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature