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Fighting experience affects fruit fly behavior in a mating context

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Abstract

In animals, correlations exist among behaviors within individuals, but it is unclear whether experience in a specific functional context can affect behavior across different contexts. Here, we use Drosophila melanogaster to investigate the effects of conflict-induced behavioral modifications on male mating behavior. In D. melanogaster, males fight for territories and experience a strong winner-loser effect, meaning that winners become more likely to win subsequent fights compared to losers, who continue to lose. In our protocol, males were tested for courtship intensity before and after fighting against other males. We show that male motivation to copulate before fights cannot predict the fight outcomes, but that, afterwards, losers mate less than before and less than winner and control males. Contrarily, winners show no differences between pre- and post-fight courtship intensity, and do not differ from control males. This suggests that the physiological modifications resulting from fight outcomes indirectly affect male reproductive behavior.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Erika Dawson for comments.

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    Authors and Affiliations

    1. Laboratoire Evolution, Génomes, Comportement, Ecologie, Avenue de la Terrasse, 91198, Gif-sur-Yvette, France

      Serafino Teseo, Liisa Veerus & Frédéric Mery

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    1. Serafino Teseo
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    2. Liisa Veerus
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    3. Frédéric Mery
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    Correspondence to Serafino Teseo.

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    Communicated by: Volker Loeschcke

    Serafino Teseo and Liisa Veerus contributed equally to this work.

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    Teseo, S., Veerus, L. & Mery, F. Fighting experience affects fruit fly behavior in a mating context. Sci Nat 103, 38 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00114-016-1368-x

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