The role of haltere feedback during territorial chases in the house fly, Musca domestica

Abstract

Of key importance among natural behaviours are territorial chases in which insects guard and defend home territories by chasing away aerial interlopers. Such territorial behaviours allow insects to secure mates and are hence important for both the survival and evolution of insects. To carry out these complex aerobatic manoeuvres requires the nervous system of the chasing fly to rapidly sense and respond to an interloper. Assays for territorial chases in a laboratory environment hence offer an exciting means to experimentally study various questions about sensorimotor integration in flying insects. In this project, we have designed assays for territorial chases between house flies (Musca domestica), and filmed them using high-speed cameras. With this assay, we tried to understand the role of mechanosensory input from the halteres. Using multiple, synchronized cameras, we obtain 3D coordinates of the head and abdomen of the territorial defender and the interloper. We compared ethograms to gain qualitative insight in the flight defects of flies with their halteres intact and either haltere ablated. Though, we have their flight trajectories, but we are yet to quantify the defects in flight trajectories when they move in three dimensions.