Intraspecific Variations in the Thresholds of Female Responsiveness for Auditory Stimuli Emitted by the Male in Drosophila mercatorum

概要

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Drosophila mercatorum is a suitable material to directly and quantitatively study female responsiveness to the courting male because the receptive female apparently shows a special acceptance posture which is necessary before the male attempts to copulate. Sexual acceptance in D. mercatorum females was believed to be essentially determined by auditory stimuli provided by wing vibration of the courting male. A special apparatus, "double cells", was constructed to elucidate the importance or auditory cues in the courtship, in which transmission of visual and tactile cues from the male to the female was prevented. The proportion of females responding to the courting male was different among the three strains of females used. Thus, it was suggested that there was considerable variability in the threshold level of the female for auditory stimuli among the three strains. There findings were consistent with those of studies on both mating propensity (Ikeda and Carson, 1973) and on the nature of courtship sounds (Ikeda et al., 1980). The female whose antennae were removed proved to be unresponsive to the courting male. Thus, it was reconfirmed that the antennae of the female can act as an auditory receptor, through which courtship sounds can be received.
社団法人日本動物学会の論文
1981-09-25